Southlake, Aug. 14, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Killara Outdoors, one of the fastest-growing holding companies in the outdoor industry, today announced a decisive long-term growth strategy that challenges the traditional private equity model and sets its sights on becoming the most influential company in the category.
CEO Chris Macaulay, who built and exited a media-tech company, served on Microsoft’s Global Partner Advisory Board, and became CEO for North America of a global investment group by age 32, is leading the charge. His message to the industry is clear: operational excellence and content-driven commerce will outpace financial engineering every time.
Calling Time on Private Equity in the Outdoor Industry: Macaulay’s announcement comes amid a changing financial landscape where many private equity firms are struggling to raise new funds, exit investments, and deliver returns.
“The outdoor industry has over 35,000 companies in the US alone, yet so much potential has been stifled by short-term thinking,” Macaulay said. “Private equity has done more harm than good in this space, cutting too deep, stripping culture, and prioritizing spreadsheets over strategy. We’re building the opposite: a platform that scales without sacrificing the soul of a brand.”
A Centralized Platform for Scale: Under the Killara model, every acquisition is integrated into a shared operational backbone, including manufacturing, logistics, sales, finance, media, and technology. This infrastructure gives portfolio brands instant access to capabilities and scale that would take years to build independently.
“Our team is made up of seasoned operators who’ve run companies from the factory floor to the boardroom,” Macaulay said. “We know how to pack boxes, launch products, and lead teams, and that’s why we win.”
Content-Driven Commerce as the Growth Engine: A cornerstone of Killara’s strategy is content-driven commerce: fusing storytelling and sales through in-house media capabilities and partnerships with some of the largest content creators in the outdoor category.
“This isn’t about chasing impressions,” Macaulay said. “It’s about creating integrated campaigns that put our brands into the culture and move product.”
IPO in Sight, But Not an Exit: Killara is not a permanent holding company. Instead of selling to private equity, the company plans to go public in the coming years, a move Macaulay describes as a growth accelerator, not a cash-out.
“Going public is about scaling further, faster,” he said. “It’s about having the firepower to expand our mission, not walking away from it.”
Teasing the Next Frontier: Killara Intelligence: As part of this growth offensive, the company is developing Killara Intelligence, a proprietary AI-powered data platform that will unify real-time signals from every customer touchpoint across its portfolio and the broader industry.
“Killara Intelligence will be the most commercially useful data layer in the outdoor industry,” Macaulay said. “It’s not a reporting dashboard, it’s a decision engine.”
While full details will be revealed closer to its late 2025 launch, the platform is already shaping strategic decisions inside Killara and has the potential to redefine category-wide data capabilities.
Macaulay’s announcement marks a clear line in the sand: Killara Outdoors is playing a different game.
“We’re not a flip shop,” he said. “We’re building an operator-led, founder-aligned, content-powered platform with the ambition to dominate this industry. If you believe in brands with purpose, scaled with discipline, then you’ll want to watch what we do next.”
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For more information about Killara Outdoors, contact the company here:
Killara Outdoors
Killara Outdoors
[email protected]
180 State Street, 201, Southlake, TX 76092
CONTACT: Killara Outdoors
