Related Party Transactions

12 Months Ended

Dec. 29, 2012

Related Party Transactions [Abstract]

Related Party Transactions

RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS

During 2012, West Marine did not enter into any new related party transactions. In addition, the company terminated one related party lease during 2012 and one during 2011, as further described below.

Randolph K. Repass, West Marine's founder and Chairman of the Board, is a general partner of three partnerships in which he, together with certain members of his family, owns substantially all of the partnership interests. Geoffrey A. Eisenberg, our former Chief Executive Officer, is a 7.5% limited partner in the two partnerships from which the Company leases its Watsonville, California support center and its store in Santa Cruz, California.

West Marine has leased its store in Santa Cruz, California, its store in Braintree, Massachusetts, and its support center in Watsonville, California since 1982, 1996 and 1988, respectively. Negotiations for these transactions were conducted at arms' length using independent representatives for each party at the time these leases were entered into. Although these leases have been in place for a number of years, the Company's Audit Committee nonetheless reviews these transactions annually to determine if they remain in the best interest of the Company. In this regard, the Committee considered that Messrs. Repass and Eisenberg entered into a re-negotiation of the rental terms for the support center during 2009, prior to the expiration of the lease term. Although under the no compulsion to do so, Mr. Repass acknowledged the soft real estate market conditions at the time and agreed to a rent reduction. Additionally, in July 2011, a lease amendment was signed which reduced the amount of Watsonville support center storage space leased to the Company and which extended the storage space lease from November 2011 to October 2016 to be coterminous with the support center lease. Due to the lease amendment, the Company's related contractual obligation decreased by immaterial amounts for fiscal years 2011 through 2016.

From February 2002 through March 2011, West Marine leased its store in Palo Alto, California from a trust, for which Randolph K. Repass is the trustee. The trust sold the property on March 18, 2011, and the Company terminated its lease effective as of that date. West Marine leased its store in New Bedford, Massachusetts from a corporation of which Mr. Repass' brother is the President and his father is a member of the board of directors and a major stockholder. The New Bedford lease expired in February 2012, and the Company terminated the lease in May 2012. The Company opened a new store in the neighboring area which is leased from a party unrelated to West Marine.

The lease for the Company support center is West Marine's most significant related party transaction. West Marine made payments to the above-related parties during fiscal years 2012, 2011 and 2010 in the aggregate amount of approximately $1.8 million for each year.

Related party transactions, including related party lease renewals, are pre-approved by West Marine's Board of Directors acting through the Audit Committee. The Audit Committee reviews and determines that the related party transaction is in the best interest of the Company and its shareholders. As of December 29, 2012, there were no amounts due to related parties.