When Dover Saddlery — the largest retailer of equestrian products in the U.S. — went out of business this summer, it left behind disappointed customers, unpaid vendors, empty stores and disillusioned former employees.
But Canada-based Greenhawk Equestrian Sport is swooping in to save the day, opening 10 U.S. stores this autumn in locations formerly occupied by Dover. It’s starting with the Wellington, Fla., store scheduled for a late September or early October debut in the “Winter Equestrian Capital of the World.” The other stores should be open later in the autumn.
Ian Russell, Greenhawk’s CEO, said it was “always a plan” for his company “to enter into the U.S.”
Greenhawk’s original U.S. outpost, a wholly-owned 10,000-square foot subsidiary in Natick, Mass., was the “springboard” to a greater U.S. presence, as Ian put it.
“Then the Dover opportunity came,” he said.
Natick will continue operating, as stores are added in Branchburg, N.J.; Chantilly and Charlottesville, Va.; Ridgefield, Conn.; Aiken, S.C.; Dallas, Libertyville, Ill., Alpharetta, Ga. and Parker, Colo. There will be more U.S. stores opening in the future, Ian promised.
An American and Canadian team is “making this happen,” he advised.
“Our contribution is, at most, seeing this opportunity and then jumping on it as quickly as we could, putting the structure together and then largely handing it over to a really accomplished team.”
Greenhawk CEO Ian Russell with the company’s president, Gary Millage.
That includes many people who worked for Dover, which means that customers may feel at home when they walk into a Greenhawk store at a former Dover location. (The company bought all the fixtures from the Dover locations, and will use the same color palette, but they did not buy any of the inventory.)
Greenhawk has a similar brand supplier profile to Dover, and Ian expects Greenhawk will hire more than 200 employes.
As he noted, “If you have the right people on the team, then a lot of the pieces fall together a lot easier and you have people who know the industry, so you’re not having to reinvent the wheel.”
They also understand horse sport and the consumer dynamic. Greenhawk rehired a segment of Dover management, which included personnel from the head office. But that wasn’t all.
“Very important was the store management,” Ian emphasized.
“That was the motivation for moving really quickly.”
Ian’s father, Gordon Russell, started Greenhawk in a 20-foot trailer with two employees at an Ontario, Canada, racetrack 42 years ago. From that low-key beginning, it became Canada’s largest equestrian retailer, with 50 corporate and franchise sites. It also owns Bark & Fitz, a specialty pet retailer.
Dover was publicly traded before Webster Capital acquired it in 2015. Promus Equity Partners bought it in 2022, but expected growth did not come, and in April, the company went to a liquidator, Gordon Brothers, as final sales emptied the stores. Employees were looking for their next jobs while customers scouted for other places where they could be fitted for helmets or boots, buy equipment for their stables, pick up tack and get assistance from experienced advisors.
“I’m super grateful for the response from the trade, from the supply chain,” Ian reported.
“A lot of excitement, thank goodness, because that was a big opportunity being lost for the industry — those channels at the ground level to the consumer. You’ve got to make it a destination for the passionate rider, whether they’re an amateur or a pro or novice, or maybe they’re just showing up at the barn to watch a rider on their dressage horse. It’s that whole life cycle. The commonality between all those individuals is passion. If you’re not in the equestrian world, I don’t think you really get it.”
He is determined that the passion will be reflected in Greenhawk’s stores and personnel.
“When you love something, it’s more fun to go to the store.” He believes in “mirroring the passion of the sport with the passion of Greenhawk. The most important person in the mix is the customer.”
The company’s initiative is good news for so many in the industry. There was disenchantment and even heartbreak as a result of Dover’s departure after a half-century of being a go-to brand on which people had come to rely.
James Paolino, who had been director of retail at Dover, wrote on Linked In, “Over the last three years, as leadership changed, so did the culture. What had once been a positive, collaborative environment became increasingly toxic. Decisions became increasingly disconnected from key players, communication and discussion became not existent, and the organization began to feel different. People were frustrated and valid concerns ignored.”
Haley McIsaac, who worked in the creative department at Dover for eight years, called the end of the company “a profound loss,” saying it “was not expected.”
Last spring, employees received a 60-day warning that they could lose their jobs, something required under Massachusetts law, and that was a time of turbulence for them.
“We knew the company was for sale, but we did not expect the sale to go to a liquidator,” said Haley, who is also a professional photographer and is looking for a job as a digital image specialist.
“What we knew as Dover and who we knew as Dover was not the group that made this decision,” the Massachusetts resident said as she commented on the company’s fate.
Speaking about the friends she made at Dover, Haley observed, “People really put care into their work and cared about the brand more than just a job, because so many of us are horse people. We felt we were contributing to an industry that is meaningful to us beyond work. I think that’s why this was kind of traumatic.”
