Latest Headlines – Page 337
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United Brands expands in a contrasted Belgian market
United Brands, the Belgian sports lifestyle retailer, outperformed the country's sports market by far with a sales increase of 8.2 percent to €38 million for the fiscal year ended in April. Excluding a store that was taken over in the sea resort of Knokke-le-Zoute last October, the retailer's comparable sales ...
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JD moves into Spain by taking Sprinter’s control
After an acquisition in France two years ago and another one in Ireland last April, JD Sports Fashion, the leading British sports fashion retailer, is moving into Spain by purchasing Sprinter, a sporting goods retailer with 47 large stores, mostly in the southwest of the country. Split into four trading ...
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Weaker sales at JD
JD Sports Fashion, the leading British retailer of sports lifestyle products, indicates that comparable store sales have deteriorated at its sports stores in the last weeks. In an interim management statement for the weeks from Jan. 30 until June 4, the company said that they dropped by 3.0 percent, while ...
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VF acquires Timberland, targeting synergies and higher profits
VF Corporation, the owner of The North Face and many other outdoor, sports and jeans brands, has agreed to pay about $2 billion to acquire The Timberland Company, the American firm that owns the Timberland and SmartWool brands. The amount doesn't include extra cash at Timberland. If completed, the tie-up ...
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Deal quells unrest at Sport 2000 France
Activa Capital, the fund that holds 51 percent of Sport 2000 France, and retail members of this voluntary group said that they had come to an agreement about its management and strategy for the coming years. Approved by members representing more than half of the group's turnover, the deal puts ...
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Intersport and Cisalfa look for higher margins
Excluding the revenues of Intersport Italia, which it controls, Cisalfa Sport recorded only a slight increase in its revenues to €389 million in the financial year ended Feb. 28, compared with €386 million the year before, but its chief executive, Marco Giunta, said its profitability improved.For its part, Intersport Italia ...
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Growing Tecnica Group sells Think Pink
Responding to a takeover offer, Tecnica Group has sold its Think Pink brand of apparel to Man Socks Italia, a 20-year-old Italian knitwear manufacturer that makes socks, underwear and other items, partly under license with brands such as Fila and Australian. Run separately through a subsidiary, GB International, Think Pink ...
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Columbia attacks Gore in Europe
Columbia Sportswear, along with OutDry Technologies, the Italian developer of breathable membranes that it acquired last year, has appealed to the anti-trust authorities of the European Commission (EC) to check whether the practices of W.L. Gore & Associates are in line with the European Union's competition laws. The plaintiffs allege ...
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Adidas makes new investments in Germany
The Adidas Group announced today plans for the opening of its biggest distribution center woldwide in the first half of 2013, reaching full capacity by 2015. It will break grounds next August for the €100 million facility, which will be located in Niedersachsenpark, Germany. The new DC will consolidate under ...
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Dahon produces for Europe in Bulgaria
Dahon, the U.S. brand of folding bicycles, told its distributors at an annual meeting in Zagreb that, starting next year, it is shifting the production of bicycles intended for the European market from Asia to Bulgaria. The company has sealed a strategic partnership with Maxcom, a large-scale Bulgarian bicycle manufacturer, ...
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Kneissl’s star sinks again
Midnight last Wednesday was the deadline for Sheikh Al Jaber to rescue the bankrupt Kneissl company through a payment of about €2.1 million. Yet the billionaire from Saudi Arabia ignored the deadline, so the fate of the legendary Austrian ski brand is again uncertain. A liquidation of the venerable Austrian ...
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Lotto adds a layer to its Indian partnership
Columbus Shoes, an Indian company that makes and sells footwear under its own brand name, has obtained a sub-license to make and sell footwear under the Italian brand to independent Indian shoe stores. Sports Lifestyle, Lotto's master licensee in India, will continue to source Lotto footwear for sale to key ...
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Indian market is worth more than €1.6 billion
The Federation of Sports and Play Associations (FSPA) held an India Day at its head office in Stoneleigh Park last month, to mark the release of an in-depth 300-page report on the Indian sports market compiled by EDM Publications, the publisher of Sporting Goods Intelligence Europe, as part of its ...
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Scott goes direct in South Africa
Scott Sports, the Swiss-based cycling and winter sports company, has acquired a majority stake in Probike, its distributor in South Africa and neighboring markets. The stake was bought from Peter Miller, Probike's outgoing chairman, while his former business partner Brandon Els remains a minority shareholder and managing director of Probike.Probike ...
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Street soccer brand expands in Europe
Known only in a few restricted circles for its special low-bounce balls cover ed with raw denim, which are meant to be specifically used for playing football in the streets, Manta has never made big strides in the market, especially outside the Netherlands. Its adoption by Foot Locker and the ...
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Penalty creates first subsidiary outside South America
Penalty, a leading Brazilian producer of shoes and balls for futsal and other team sports, has created its first subsidiary outside South America with Penalty Iberia, which will take over the distribution in Spain and Portugal. Previously, Sports World, a Portuguese company, was the distributor in the region, and it ...
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Alpargatas posts higher sales and profits
Alpargatas managed to improve its results in the first quarter of this year from the relatively high levels attained in the same period a year ago and in the fourth quarter of 2010, in spite of high raw material costs, mostly by upgrading its price mix and in other ways.This ...
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Kesko takes over Intersport Russia
Kesko Corporation, the big and successful licensee of Intersport International Corp. in Finland, has signed an agreement to acquire a controlling stake of 80 percent in a new joint venture that will manage and develop the Intersport banner in Russia. The present Russian licensee of Intersport, Melovest, will own the ...
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Russians become sportier, chains expand
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told his country's Parliament a few weeks ago that he would like to see 70 percent of the population practicing some kind of sport by the year 2015, as is the case in many Western European countries. He said that there are now more than ...
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Fenix buys the leading Finnish outdoor retailer
The Fenix Outdoor group, which owns the Swedish Naturkompaniet retail chain of outdoor stores along with Fjällräven and several other brands, has extended its retail presence to Finland, where it fully acquired the Partioaitta chain last month.As part of the acquisition of Partioaitta, the Fenix Outdoor group has bagged this ...
