Latest Headlines – Page 336
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The European sports market is recovering
Rebounding from the declines of 1.7 and 3.7 percent that they had suffered in 2009, respectively, sales of sports shoes and sports apparel recorded slight increases in value in the five major European markets in 2010, according to the online consumer panel of NPD Group. The corresponding table is on ...
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Prices are going up, more or less selectively
Cost increases have been experienced by practically every vendor of footwear and clothing products in the athletic and casual markets over the past 12 months, and more than 70 percent of them have decided to reflect them in one way or another in the prices that they are charging to ...
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Spanish industry records positive results for the first time since 2008
The Spanish sporting goods industry had a successful year in 2010, with positive results after two years of recession. With a 1.7 percent sales increase over 2009 to €5,078 million, 2010 indicates a slight recovery from the recession that started in 2008. It was pointed out, however, that most of ...
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Sports Direct takes majority share in fashion retailers
Sports Direct, the leading British sports retailer and wholesaler, is moving into fashion by taking over 80 percent of two British fashion retailers. For £7.0 million (€7.9m-$11.2m) in cash, Sports Direct took over control of West Coast Capital, which runs the USC chain of young fashion apparel; and Cruise Clothing, ...
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Macron gets new equity for expansion
An Italian equity fund, Consilium SGR, has acquired a majority stake of 50.1 percent in this Italian team sports apparel specialist through a major capital increase to sustain its strong growth and its expansion into new markets. The terms of the transaction were kept confidential, but the multiples are understood ...
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Pony is again riding in Europe via van der Kroft
Arthur van der Kroft, a former general manager of Converse in Europe, has obtained licensing rights for the Pony brand in northern Europe, and is about to relaunch it across several European countries. Almost absent from the European market for several years, the American sneaker brand feted its European comeback ...
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Wolverine may join M&A bandwagon, performs well
After the momentous recent acquisition of Timberland by VF Corporation, numerous smaller mergers and acquisition have taken place all of a sudden in the outdoor sector, some of which has obviously been timed to precede the big OutDoor show in Friedrichshafen. We have reported on them in the latest issue ...
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New leadership for O’Neill
Willem Haitink, general manager of Converse in Europe, has been poached by O'Neill by take over the leadership of the company, replacing Jan Valdmaa, the seasoned Swedish executive who has been running it for the last two years.Valdmaa has left the company to head up one or more new ventures ...
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Extrem’s founders buy back their brand
Backed up by three partners, the founders of Extrem, Stefan Cederberg and Patrik Söderlund, have bought back the alpine ski brand they launched in 1981 and the Swedish manufacturing facility of Skigutane, the Norwegian company that acquired Extrem three years ago.The three partners are Carl Geijer, who previously launched the ...
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New leader for new Turkish Intersport
Audin Kanatli, a former Nike and Levi's executive, has been appointed general manager of Intersport Atletik A.S., the new name of Intersport Turkey A.S., after the retailer finalized its acquisition by Fourlis Holding, the Intersport licensee in Greece, Romania, Bulgaria and Cyprus. The leading sports retailer in Turkey was previously ...
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Nike upgrades mid-term sales targets
After another robust quarter, the Nike group upgraded its five-year sales target, predicting that its turnover will reach between $28 billion and $30 billion for the fiscal year ending May 2015. Only last year, the company had targeted sales of $27 billion by the end of the five-year period.Unveiled at ...
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Nike powered ahead in the last quarter
The daylong investor meeting in Beaverton came the day after Nike released its results for the last quarter of its fiscal year, until the end of May. While the Nike group moved full steam ahead in most markets, its sales were still sluggish in Europe. Orders indicate that underlying demand ...
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Fila licenses key retailers in Europe
Fila Korea, which bought back the rights to the Fila brand in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) earlier this year, has entirely changed its distribution setup in the region by sealing licensing deals with several leading retailers.The partners are JD Sports Fashion for the U.K. and Ireland, Sportmaster ...
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Fellows leaves Callaway amid losses, cutbacks
Callaway Golf has appointed one of its board members as its interim president and chief executive after the sudden departure of George Fellows earlier this week. The switch comes as Callaway is preparing heavy restructuring measures to return to profits, entailing job losses at all levels of the business.At the ...
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Dutch car importer buys Gazelle
Pon Holdings, a large-scale Dutch importer of cars and industrial machinery, among others, has reached an in-principle agreement with Gilde Buy Out Partners, the majority shareholder of Koninklijke Gazelle, to take over the leading brand in the Dutch bicycle market.Gazelle assembles an estimated 300,000 bicycles per year at its factory ...
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Sports Plc scouring acquisitions market
Sports Plc, the U.K.-based online retailer and brand owner, has launched an active search to acquire other companies, either other retailers or complementary brands. The search comes after several years of rapid growth for Sports Plc, which was launched 13 years ago and reached sales of about $40 million last ...
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EU regulates online retailing
The European Parliament has adopted rules on online retailing that afford more protection for consumers and add constraints for retailers. However, its new Consumer Rights Directive does not include the tougher demands that had been put forward by German parliamentarians – that online retailers should have the facilities to deliver ...
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Pentland Brands thrives in emerging markets
The Pentland Group's investments in emerging markets fueled a sales increase of 14.5 percent to £1,298 million (€1,439m-$2,084m) for the company last year. Several of Pentland's brands moved further into Asian and Latin American markets, leading to a growth of 28 percent in the group's wholesale sales in these two ...
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Peak expands in Spain and Poland
Peak Performance, the Swedish outdoor and winter sports apparel brand, picked ProAm Sport, a company in the Mega Sport group in Barcelona, to distribute its products in Spain and Andorra from the start of June. This company already markets brands from Rossignol to Dynastar, Lange, Haglöfs and FitFlop, among others.Peak ...
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Strong growth for Intersport in Austria
While benefitting from steadily positive weather conditions like other Austrian retailers, Intersport is gaining market shares in Austria on a same-store basis and expanding strongly in neighboring Eastern European markets. In Austria alone, Regio Plan, the local market research company, has assigned a share of 37.71 percent to Intersport in ...
