Latest Headlines – Page 372
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Li Ning Overcomes Tough Conditions
Li Ning, the Chinese sportswear company, had a 25.4 percent increase in sales to 8.39 billion renminbi (€907.9m-$1,227.2m) for the 2009 fiscal year ended Dec. 31. Annual net income rose by 31.0 percent to CNY 945 million (€102.3m-$138.2m). The gross profit margin slipped by 0.8 percentage points to 47.3 percent. ...
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Ispo China Proves To Be Strong In Outdoor, But Less In Other Segments
The organizers of Ispo China feel that they have taken a leading role in the Asia-Pacific region, reporting that they had 21 percent more visitors for the show held March 4-6 than they did in 2009. Nearly 16,300 attendees were at the show, a record. Several major players exhibited there ...
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Sports Direct Is Considering An Offer To Buy Blacks Leisure
Sports Direct International (SDI), the leading British sports retailer controlled by Mike Ashley, said that it was mulling a cash bid for Blacks Leisure, after acquiring a stake of 28.5 percent in the outdoor retailer. The move is only partially thwarting its plans to raise more equity to help finance ...
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Foot Locker Looks To Europe For Growth
Foot Locker plans to open 60 new stores this year and more than 70 percent of them will be in European countries where it is already operating and where the group behind the banner continues to perform better than elsewhere. It will also be closing about 150 stores, the majority ...
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Adidas Is Confident After A Tough Year
Adidas Group managers gladly put last year behind them, describing it as the toughest year for the group in the last decade. However, they felt that their performance had been respectable under the circumstances and that, after a more encouraging last quarter, they were in strong shape for a rebound ...
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Easytone Is Lifting Reebok’S Sales And Margins
Adidas Group’s management is expressing new confidence that it will bring Reebok back to growth this year, on the back of heavy investments in the toning and fitness categories. True, this has been heard before: After Adidas acquired the brand in 2005, it predicted that Reebok would return to growth ...
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Adidas’ Net Income Plunges On 5% Sales Drop But Cash Is Strong
While unveiling its annual results in Herzogenaurach last week, the Adidas Group inaugurated a reporting method that provides more insights into distribution channels and regional markets. The company has further broken down its business with the Adidas and Reebok brands into wholesale and retail sales, matching the management changes that ...
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New Action On Anti-dumping Duties In Eu And Brazil
The EU General Court, the second-highest court in the European Union, rejected last week an appeal filed by a number of footwear makers in China and Hong Kong requesting that it rescind the 16.5 percent anti-dumping duties levied on imports to the EU from China. The Luxembourg court rejected all ...
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Greg Norman’S European Licensee Files For Insolvency
The Greg Norman Collection has taken back its distribution in Europe, following the insolvency last month of its British-based licensee for the region, Severn Under. Tony Wilkinson, who was running Severn Under, stays with the golf apparel brand as its president for the U.K. and Europe, and its distribution partners ...
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Bike Demand Keeps Accell In Good Shape
Strong demand across many categories helped Accell Group, the Dutch bike company, to boast a 6.0 percent increase in sales to €572.6 million for the 2009, 5.0 percent of which was organic. The net profit grew by 15.2 percent to €32.7 million. Operating profit was up by 8.0 percent to ...
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Neil Pryde Launches Bikes
Neil Pryde plans to launch its first line of bicycles in the second half of this year. Developed together with BMW Group Designworks USA, it will be offered worldwide through the internet and marketed more specifically in some European countries, such as Germany, France and the Benelux countries, where the ...
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Head Sees Drops Except In Tennis
Head NV has released preliminary figures for the 2009 fiscal year, reporting a 2.1 percent drop in sales to €319.0 million. However, the reported operating profit more than quadrupled to €8.4 million, from €1.9 million in 2008. Net income was €22.3 million, a significant turnaround from the €9.7 million loss ...
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Danish Distributor Gets New Balance For Scandinavia
Active Sportswear International, the fast-growing company that has been distributing New Balance in Denmark since 1996, has been given the distribution in Norway and Sweden as well. Those two countries have been covered for many years by a subsidiary of New Balance in Gothenburg, and most of their employees and ...
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Uk Gear Targets The American Market
UK Gear, a British brand of running shoes that specializes in deliveries to armed forces, has mapped out plans for rapid expansion in the U.S. market after Catapult, a British venture capital firm, injected just over £1.1 million (€1.2m-$1.7m) into the company. As part of the deal, UK Gear ...
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Fila Is In For A Re-launch In Europe
Fila is looking at the spring/summer 2011 season for a major re-launch in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Indian subcontinent, where the brand has gone through a major reorganization of its operations that is now almost completed. That’s the plan of Rajiv Batra, who replaced Jan Valdmaa last ...
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Crocs Sees Turnaround And Bids Goodbye To Man Who Did It
John McCarvel has stepped in as president and chief executive of Crocs, replacing John Duerden, a former Reebok manager who is retiring from the company after leading its turnaround as president, CEO and board member. Duerden will help McCarvel’s transition if necessary. McCarvel was previously the chief operating ...
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Volcom Improved Margins In Tough Year
A challenging year for Volcom ended with a 16.1 percent drop in sales to $280.6 million. However, the U.S. action sports company managed to increase its gross margin by 1.4 percentage points to 50.2 percent and its net income by 0.2 percent to $21.7 million. Sales in the ...
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Championship Deal Helps Halti’S Expansion Plans In Germany
Halti, the Finnish ski apparel company, has sealed an exclusive deal with Intersport Germany to sell a range of apparel made for the volunteers of the alpine skiing World Championships to be held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 2011. This is part of the company’s expansion drive after an extensive clean-up ...
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French Firms Launch The Outdoor Sports Valley
That’s the name given to an association of companies operating in the area of Annecy, the city in the Savoy region of France that has applied to host the Winter Olympic Games in 2018. After five years of lobbying and preparations, they have obtained a commitment by local authorities to ...
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Indian Shoemaker Expands Capacity For Adidas And Reebok
Because of very high import duties, virtually all the footwear sold by Adidas and Reebok on the Indian market is made locally, as is also the case with Nike and others. With Adidas’ sales in India growing rapidly, the Lakhani Amman Group, one of the largest Indian shoe companies and ...
