Latest Headlines – Page 335

  • Article

    Jittery investors at JJB Sports

    7 August 2012

    British newspapers report that Invesco, an investment firm that holds 47 percent in JJB Sports, wants to strengthen its influence at the beleaguered British sports retail group as a means to speed up its restructuring plan. The Sunday Times heard that Invesco wanted to buy the retailer's outstanding debt with ...

  • Article

    Adidas is whipped up by the Olympics

    7 August 2012

    As the London Olympic Games were under way last week, the Adidas Group reported another buoyant quarter for the Three Stripes, although the entire group's performance was dampened by a steep sales decline for the Reebok brand. The company ended the quarter with a turnover of €3,517 million, up by ...

  • Article

    Struggling Vulcabras loses its head

    7 August 2012

    Milton Cardoso Dos Santos Filho has resigned as chief executive of Vulcabras, the big Brazilian company that owns the Olympikus brand and manages the distribution of Reebok in three Latin American countries. He has also left the company's board of directors. A public statement says that he is leaving for ...

  • Article

    After cleanup, K-Swiss bets on Clean Classics

    7 August 2012

    K-Swiss continued to suffer heavy declines in sales and orders in the second quarter, but the Californian sports company managed to reduce its loss as the radical cost-cutting measures launched last year started to pay off.The group's sales shrank by 31.5 percent to $44.7 million for the quarter. Its U.S. ...

  • Article

    Amer’s investments buoy sales but sink income

    7 August 2012

    Driven by winter and outdoor apparel, Amer Sports managed to lift its sales by 12 percent to €353.8 million in the second quarter, which was an increase of 5 percent in constant currencies, but abundant investments in own retailing and emerging markets dug a hole in the company's earnings.Sales were ...

  • Article

    Therm-ic is bankrupt

    7 August 2012

    Body Systems, the company that owns Therm-ic and other operations, has filed for bankruptcy protection in the court of Graz. Urs Maron, who took full ownership of the Austrian company last year, said he was preparing a legal case against its founder, David Macher, based on suspicion that he had ...

  • Article

    Deckers invests in Hoka One One

    7 August 2012

    Deckers Outdoor Corporation has announced a “strategic investment” in Hoka One One, the new and special brand of oversized trail running shoes first introduced for the autumn/winter 2010/11 season by Jean-Luc Diard, a former chief executive of Salomon, and by his former marketing manager, Nicolas Mermoud.As we have subsequently learnt, ...

  • Article

    Inov-8 gets backing from an equity fund

    7 August 2012

    This young British brand of running and fitness shoes and other performance footwear signed a deal last May for an equity increase funded by a U.K. low-cap private equity company, Isis Equity Partners, to help support its strong growth at home and abroad, its expansion into new markets and further ...

  • Article

    Anta’s net falls by 17%

    7 August 2012

    Anta Sports Products, a major Chinese manufacturer of athletic footwear, announced that its net profit for the six months ended June 30 was $121.7 million, down by 17 percent from the year-ago period. An official partner of the Chinese Olympic Committee, Anta remains cautious about the short-term outlook for the ...

  • Article

    Garmin’s outdoor and fitness rise in the second quarter

    7 August 2012

    Garmin's revenues from its outdoor segment increased by 24 percent to $100 million in the second quarter of 2012. Those of the fitness segment increased by 5 percent to $82 million, compared against a strong performance in 2011. The company's overall sales increase amounted to 7 percent. Turnover reached $718 ...

  • Article

    Black Diamond’s sales grow by 13%, but net loss increases

    7 August 2012

    Total sales for the Black Diamond group, based in Salt Lake City, were $31.9 million in the second quarter ended June 30, a 13 percent increase from the year-earlier period. The gross margin of the American group increased to 39.1 percent, compared with 38.9 a year ago, due to a ...

  • Article

    Big growth for Totoe through diversification

    7 August 2012

    Here is another fast-growing British company, which has applied to socks the kind of toe separation concept adopted by Vibram for its Fivefingers line of shoes. The company, Toetoe, has been in business for 13 years. It has just announced the launch of a line of socks based on this ...

  • Article

    Far-reaching European reorganization at Puma

    30 July 2012

    Puma intends to overhaul its European structure, cuttting back part of its national organizations and forming instead seven regional units – with dedicated sales and marketing staff for each country, but with regional back office functions and warehousing. The cutbacks are meant to make the company more efficient in Europe, ...

  • Article

    Puma’s European sales weaken

    30 July 2012

    The restructuring measures were unveiled as Puma reported weakening sales in Europe in the second quarter. They declined by 2.2 percent to €283.6 million, amounting to a decline of 3.0 percent in constant currencies. ...

  • Article

    The outdoor brands invoiced 14.5% more for footwear in 2011

    30 July 2012

    According to the annual survey of the market conducted by Sporting Goods Intelligence and The Outdoor Industry Compass, sales of branded outdoor shoes grew by 14.5% at the wholesale level in 2011 worldwide in terms of U.S. dollars, with increases of 9.6 percent in the U.S. and 18.6 percent in ...

  • Article

    Sports Direct is entering Hungary and Iceland

    30 July 2012

    Sports Direct International (SDI), the leading British sports retailer and brand owner, is moving ahead with its plan to open stores across Europe in the coming years. After its moves into Slovenia, Cyprus, Portugal and France in the last years, the company has opened its own store in Hungary and ...

  • Article

    Icelandic dealer joins Stag

    30 July 2012

    Sports Direct's landing in Iceland last May (see previous article) led one of the few local sporting goods retailers, Oli Sigurdarson, to join Stag, the big British buying group, which has been expanding also in Ireland lately. The main objective is to obtain better conditions from the increasing number of ...

  • Article

    JJB’s CEO quits

    30 July 2012

    JJB Sports reported on Friday that Keith Jones is stepping down from the role of chief executive with immediate effect. He will continue to serve in an advisory role until the end of August, just before the planned Sept. 1 enthronement of Bob Corliss as chairman. JJB said its ...

  • Article

    Go Sport appoints a new boss, after a new loss

    30 July 2012

    The board of directors of Groupe Go Sport has announced the appointment of Loïc Le Borgne as its new general manager, to replace François Neukirch. Age 51, Le Borgne has 30 years of experience in retailing, 21 of which he spent with the hypermarket group Auchan. He joins the French ...

  • Article

    Mixed picture for German sports retailers

    30 July 2012

    The European football championships and other factors helped the two major German buying groups improve their sales in the first half of this year. Another boosting factor was the fact that the first half of 2011 was particularly bad.The German retailers who are affiliated with Intersport saw their sales decline ...