Cole Haan leaving Maine as new parent consolidates operations

SCARBOROUGH — Less than a year after being acquired by a global private equity firm, Cole Haan is packing up and leaving Maine, which has been the company’s home for decades.

Cole Haan is moving its corporate headquarters from Scarborough to Greenland, N.H., Kimry Blackwelder, Cole Haan’s director of public relations, told the Bangor Daily News on Thursday.

Apax Partners, a global private equity firm with offices in New York City, agreed in November to buy Cole Haan from Nike in a cash deal worth $570 million. The deal officially closed on Feb. 1, Blackwelder said.

“After an analysis of the eastern operations, it was decided to consolidate the corporate headquarters to Greenland, N.H.,” Blackwelder said.

Blackwelder wouldn’t offer additional details about how many people Cole Haan employs in Scarborough or when the move would take place.

A Nike spokesperson told the BDN in November that Cole Haan employed 140 people at its Scarborough location.

Karen Martin, executive director of the Scarborough Economic Development Corp., said on Thursday that she had heard rumors that Cole Haan would be leaving, but hadn’t spoken with anyone at the company about the move. She estimated that 110 to 120 people were employed at the company’s Scarborough location.

Cole Haan had been headquartered in Yarmouth for decades before moving to Scarborough during the summer of 2011.