Latest Headlines – Page 258
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Asics Europe set to break $1 billion sales
Asics Europe saw its sales increase by 13 percent in constant currencies excluding the Haglöfs brand last year, driven by robust sales in the running and tennis categories. Alistair Cameron, chief executive of Asics Europe, said the group was confident of breaking the $1 billion sales mark in 2015.The sales ...
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Skechers’ strong international momentum continues
At the current pace, Skechers USA seems to be poised to reach an annual turnover of €4 billion in two to three years' time, with sales outside the U.S. growing from 37.5 percent of the total to 50 percent or more. Clearly, the brand has found its place in the ...
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Wolverine turns around in the quarter
Wolverine Worldwide reported a net profit of $10.7 million for the fourth quarter of its financial year, ended on Jan. 3, compared with the loss of $1.7 million suffered in the same period a year ago. The turnaround occurred in spite of a year-on-year increase in extraordinary restructuring charges to ...
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Mizuno nearly stable despite weak golf market
Mizuno saw its sales advance by 1.1 percent to 133.7 billion yen (€0.99bn-$1.12bn) for the nine months until the end of December but that amounted to a decline of 1.5 percent in constant currencies. While the Japanese group's gross margin improved by 0.4 percentage points, its operating income slumped by ...
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Catterton invests in Sweaty Betty
Catterton, a US-based equity firm, has made an unspecified strategic investment in Sweaty Betty, a British brand and retailer specializing in women's fitness apparel. The company was established in 1998 by Tamara and Simon Hill-Norton, who remain at the helm of the company as creative director and chief executive, respectively.Sweaty ...
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Sports brands nearly flat at New Wave
New Wave Group, the Swedish owner of Craft, Cutter & Buck and several other sports brands, lifted its sales by 6 percent to 4,274 million Swedish kronor (€452.6m-$514.0m) last year. This tally encompasses sports products as well as corporate promo items, gifts and furnishings.Operating profit amounted to SEK 250 million ...
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Elan manages a profit and pursues takeover talks
Elan's sales of winter sports products declined by about 5 percent last year but the entire Slovenian group still managed to lift its turnover by about 3 percent to nearly €70 million, based on as yet unaudited figures shared by the group's management. Perhaps most importantly in the context of ...
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Rossignol claims market share gains
Rossignol, the French ski manufacturer, has issued reassurances about the prospects for its plant in Sallanches, after it announced cuts in working hours to deal with the decline of the ruble and weak snow falls last year. Faced with worried reactions about the decision in January, Rossignol hastened to add ...
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Head will delist
Head NV said earlier this month that the Vienna stock exchange intends to withdraw the listing of its shares from the end of March. This comes after a shareholders' meeting held in December, when they rejected a proposal to increase the company's capital, as a means to meet the minimum ...
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Shimano grows strongly
Aided by the weaker yen, Shimano's sales rose by 22.2 percent to 333.17 billion yen (€2,468m-$2,805m) for the year ended Dec. 31, with bicycle components rising by 26.1 percent to ¥273.96 billion (€2,030m-$2,306m) and fishing tackle growing by 10.2 percent to ¥58.8 billion (€435.5m-$495.0m).Operating earnings jumped by 57.5 percent to ...
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Mixed results for Rapala
Net sales fell at Rapala VMC Corp. by 3 percent to €61.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2014 and by 5 percent to €273.2 million for the year, but they were unchanged in terms of constant currencies for the quarter and the year. The operating margin fell to 1.9 ...
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Active Brands will open a North American subsidiary
Active Brands, the Norwegian group of outdoor and winter sports brands, has appointed Henrik Lumholdt to head its activities in North America, ahead of the opening of a full-fledged regional head office in Colorado this summer. Lumholdt previously spent exactly ten years with Dale of Norway, as president of their ...
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Aqua Sphere and Phelps launch MP brand
Aqua Sphere caused a stir at Ispo Munich earlier this month with Michael Phelps, the star swimmer who has agreed to endorse a range of MP swim products marketed by the French-owned brand. The range should help Aqua Sphere to leverage its own distribution infrastructure, while expanding faster in markets from ...
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Anta recovers fast, reinforces market share
Anta Sports Products strengthened its position as the leading Chinese sports brand, with a sales increase of 22.5 percent to 8,922.7 million yuan renminbi (€1,253.5m-$1,426.5m) last year. It was the first major Chinese brand to report on a full year that marked a recovery for the Chinese sportswear market and ...
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Chinese real estate firm buys sports marketing giant
Dalian Wanda Group, one of the leading property companies in China, has agreed to pay €1.05 billion for Infront Sports & Media, a Swiss-based sports marketing company with major assets in China and other Asian countries. It has been owned since 2011 by Bridgepoint, a European private equity firm.Infront is ...
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Youngone gets control of Scott and Outdoor Research
Youngone Corp., the big Korean-based manufacturer of outdoor apparel, shoes and backpacks, made one more step into the branded business a few days ago by raising its stake in the Swiss-based Scott Sports Group to 50.01 percent. The move boosted its share price. Last year, it had silently acquired a ...
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New chief executive at Helly Hansen
Paul Stoneham, a seasoned executive in the consumer goods industry, is to take over next week as chief executive of Helly Hansen. Peter Sjølander, who led the Norwegian outdoor brand's rapid rise in the last eight years, will continue in an advisory role for the next six months, before starting ...
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New top manager for Didriksons
Johan Ekeroth became the new chief executive of Didriksons on Jan. 5, taking the place of Sören Andreasson, who remains as a significant shareholder in the company and as a member of the board of directors. Ekeroth, 45, was most recently Asics' sales director for the Nordic countries and Benelux. ...
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Shoes and clothing keep Amer growing
Amer Sports' continued expansion in footwear and apparel helped the group to book a 7.3 percent increase in revenues to €705.3 million in the last three months of the year, with growth of 6.0 percent in local currencies. The gross margin improved by one full percentage point to 43.0 percent ...
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Jarden will benefit from lower oil prices
Jarden Corp. sees the recent drop in oil prices as giving it a tailwind in the second half of this year because many of the group's products, including its household items, are made with oil derivatives and it typically takes six to nine months for lower commodity costs to affect ...
