Reyn Spooner, the kama'aina family business that invented the reverse-print aloha shirt, has sold majority control in the company to a Los Angeles-based investment firm under a plan to globally expand the venerable apparel designer and retailer.

Reyn's announced yesterday that private equity firm Wedbush Capital Partners acquired majority ownership for an undisclosed price and will finance expected growth of stores and merchandising deals outside Hawai'i.

As part of the transaction, Tim McCullough, the 59-year-old son of company founder Reyn McCullough and Reyn's president and CEO for 30 years, has become chief design officer.

Taking over as Reyn's chief executive is Michael Brosnahan, a retail apparel industry veteran who has held high-level positions at companies including Nike, Haggar, Danskin, Speedo, Puma and Pony.

Kirk Hubbard, Reyn's existing chief operating officer, will continue his role and take on oversight of retail stores. A new chief financial officer, Bert Fenenga, will start Feb. 1 after leaving travel gear maker Eagle Creek.

All four senior executives will own minority stakes in Reyn's.

Brosnahan, 60, said the deal was made to provide a strong and profitable local company the means to grow much bigger. "This is a super company that needs to grow," he said. "It has been successful and it has tremendous brand identity. It is an iconic brand."

McCullough called the Wedbush Capital deal an expansion milestone. "With the capital investment and additions to the management team, I am confident that our partnership will be very successful," he said.

Reyn's, which is headquartered in Waimea on the Big Island, aims to expand from 10 Hawai'i stores to more locations here and on the Mainland and perhaps internationally, Brosnahan said.

The company also wholesales merchandise to other retailers such as department stores, and produces branded aloha-print apparel under licensing agreements with Major League Baseball, automobile manufacturers and 50 colleges.

Licensing, in which Reyn's typically produces aloha shirts featuring a product or brand such as the Corvette or Boston Red Sox, is a major growth target, said Brosnahan. He also said Reyn's is adding 13 salespeople to forge new U.S. licensing deals. Other markets of interest include Asia, Australia and Europe.

Brosnahan added that part of the company's expansion strategy may include acquiring other brands. "I love building companies," he said. "We're a very strong company and ready to go to the next level."

Reyn's was founded in 1949 on California's Catalina Island by Reyn McCullough, who moved to Hawai'i in 1959 and opened a traditional menswear store for the times stocked largely with suits, button-down shirts and ties at the then-new Ala Moana Center.

Reyn McCullough, who died in 1984, started making aloha shirts in 1961 through a partnership with a woman named Ruth Spooner. Spooner was known for sewing custom swim trunks in Waikiki, and the business was renamed Reyn Spooner.

But aloha shirts at the time were cut from the same loud print fabrics as mu'umu'u, and weren't regarded as appropriate business attire in Hawai'i.

In the late '60s after Spooner sold her business to McCullough, the Reyn's founder took an Ivy League-style cotton aloha shirt he had designed and created something new by sewing the shirt with the fabric inside facing out. The move gave Reyn's shirts an aged sun-bleached look of shirts worn by surfers, and the reverse-print aloha shirt was born.

"What Reyn started here in Honolulu back in the '60s — he enabled the business guy to abandon the coat and tie, and wear the Ivy League floral print and feel comfortable to conduct business," said Dale Hope, who authored "The Aloha Shirt: Spirit of the Islands" published in 2000. "That influence from the 1960s is still very prevalent today in downtown Honolulu."

Hope, who once owned and sold Kahala Sportswear to Local Motion and today is general manager of Kahala now owned by Tori Richard Ltd., said the sale of Reyn's is a dramatic change for the local apparel design and retail industry.

"It's a big deal," he said. "It's hard to let go of your baby. I know."

Brosnahan said the deal between Reyn's and Wedbush Capital evolved from a conversation between mutual friends, and that neither company initiated the investment.

Wedbush Capital is an affiliate of Wedbush Morgan Securities, a private investment bank that was established in 1955 and has done business in Hawai'i since 1969.

Since 1980, the $120 million Wedbush Capital fund has invested in more than 80 companies in industries including consumer products and services, business and financial services and niche manufacturing.

Wedbush Capital states that its target companies are profitable, growing and typically have $10 million to $50 million of annual revenues, though Brosnahan declined to disclose annual revenue for Reyn's.

"Wedbush has a long track record of identifying and assisting consumer products companies to achieve their growth objectives," he said. "We're not a bunch of top guns you hire to move in and move out."

Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com.