Flat River Group downsizes again as veteran trio leave to relaunch Luma Imports under ACD Distribution; ACD also buys Flat River’s Synapses Games

Board game distributor, publisher and e-commerce specialist Flat River Group has downsized again, with industry veterans Jules Vautour, Colin Young and Danni Loe leaving to revive distributor Luma Imports as part of ACD Distribution.

Flat River has also sold Canadian publisher and design house Synapses Games to ACD, continuing a whittling down of the private equity-backed business that began in response to US tariffs volatility three months ago.

The publisher laid off the vast majority of staff and suspended new projects at Spirit Island publisher Greater than Games in mid-April, blaming “ongoing economic pressures resulting from the international tariff crisis”.

Luma Imports was launched in 2018 as a US importer of French language games, before Vautour joined the business a year later as CEO and expanded it into an international, multi-lingual distributor.

Flat River bought the business in 2022 as part of a series of private equity-fuelled acquisitions. Flat River said in a statement that the sales and marketing services Vautour, Young, and Loe offered publishers at Flat River would continue, adding that they would be “collaborating with FRG for support on ecommerce channels, to ensure success for current partners”.

Flat River CEO Matt Stahlin said, “I’m very excited we were able to help make this happen for our hobby team. I expect this to grow hobby sales for Luma vendor partners while Flat River Group continues to provide world-class distribution for the brands in the mass retail e-commerce and brick-and-mortar space.

“We will continue to work closely with Luma and ACD going forward.”

Both Luma Imports and Synapses Games will have booths at Gen Con in August, despite Flat River having cancelled its own presence in the wake of US tariff instability earlier this year.

Synapses Games, formerly known as Get Together Publishing, has published games including Yokohama, Coatl and Rallyman: GT. Its next is set to be Yokohama Duel on August 1.

A day after the ACD acquisitions were announced, Synapses added that it had picked up the intellectual
property rights to Greater than Games’ two-player sci-fi card game Compile.

Flat River, which was launched in 2011, was bought five years ago by private equity investor Guardian Capital Partners, which provided capital for a string of acquisitions for the e-commerce distributor.

The company initially added-on fellow distribution operation Optimum Fufillment in 2020, before expanding out into board game publishing by picking up Greater than Games in 2021.

The buyout of Luma Imports a year later saw Flat River take on responsibility for the English-language catalogues for a roster of European publishers including Horrible Guild, Bombyx Studios, Sit Down and Holy Grail Games, as well as distribution for Synapses Games.

Private equity capital can provide a growth boost for companies, but PE investors are also looking for returns on their investment, and tend to hold companies in their portfolio for five to six years before aiming to sell them on to a larger business, another PE firm or float them on the public markets.

Guardian Capital Partners released a white paper last month titled ‘Navigating Through Turbulent Times: Strategic Playbook for Owners in an Era of Uncertainty’, in which it says it “works with its portfolio company executive teams to strategically think through the various 3-D chess moves required to navigate headwinds”, adding that “It is best to complete scenario planning with a clear mind, well ahead of market challenges”.

The white paper said, “History shows that during periods of turbulence, the most successful companies are not always the largest or strongest. Instead, they are the ones that adapt the fastest.

“These companies excel by making disciplined, data-informed decisions with speed and confidence. They create flexible operating plans and revise them regularly to address changing conditions.”

Greater than Games was reduced down to a team of just three by Flat River in April, with GtG co-founders Christopher Badell, Paul Bender and Adam Rebottaro the only staff members keeping their jobs. The publisher is most famous for its releases Spirit Island and Sentinels of the Multiverse.

More than 5,400 backers of the Sentinels of the Multiverse: Disparation Expansion on BackerKit are currently waiting to hear if and when the game will be produced.

The game was funded more than two years ago, but was put on hiatus by Flat River three months ago alongside GtG’s other projects.