Latest Headlines – Page 400
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European Retailers Echo Obama’S 'Yes, We Can'
In 2008, specialty sports retailers in the main European countries reached total sales worth some €37.5 billion, marginally up compared with €37 billion in the previous year, according to Fedas, the European federation of sporting goods retailers (our own sales estimates for the European market are higher). Its president, Werner ...
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Winter Sports Industry Thrives In France
The French winter sports business expanded last year, judging from preliminary findings by NPD Group. The expected growth stems from the fact that more French people headed for the slopes with their families instead of booking far-away breaks, and they were rewarded with outstanding snow conditions. This more than made ...
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British Online Retailers See Double-digit Growth
While most British sporting goods retailers saw sales plunge in the second half of 2008, a few companies came out strong. Sports PLC reported that sales were up by 28 for its U.K.-based website www.thesportshq.com and by 22 percent for the American www.golfoutletsusa.com for 2008. The British site saw a ...
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Karstadt Has New Sports Head; Sales Aren’T Too Bad
Ralph Hartmann, since November 2007 the boss of the Karstadt Sports network of sports superstores, left the group at his own request effective Dec. 31. Hartmann had replaced Willi Darr, who switched to the executive board of Metro before he left recently. The new leader of the 28 sports-dedicated stores ...
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Rucanor Falls Under New Ownership And New Management
Martijn Nelissen, who left as director of the fitness division of the Accell Group in 2004, has become the new chief executive of Rucanor. The 38-year-old Dutch executive, who had been with Accell since 1999, has a stake in the Dutch sports brand as co-investor in Atlantic Capital, an investment ...
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New Equity For Coalision
Kilmer Capital Partners, a Canadian investment group with stakes in various firms including the Toronto Maple Leafs ice hockey team, has acquired a minority stake in Coalision, the Montreal-based company that markets sports apparel under the Orage and Lolë brand names. The goal is to help finance the company’s expansion, ...
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Adidas Plays Pingpong With Green Fitness
Adidas has granted a global license for table tennis equipment to Green Fitness, a German-based supplier of fitness equipment. The license includes tennis tables, balls, paddles and nets as well as other hardgoods, but not apparel and footwear, which continue to be marketed by Adidas. Adidas did not ...
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Adidas Shut Down Reebok Office
Reebok is planning to close its U.K. office in Bolton and merge its operations with those of Adidas, its parent company. Job functions will be moved either to Adidas’ British head office in Stockton or to Reebok’s global headquarters in Massachusetts. The closure of the Bolton office is ...
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Changes Begin In Wake Of Adidas’ Takeover Of Ashworth
John Camp, managing director for Ashworth in Europe, exited the company earlier this year, a few months after Ashworth was acquired by Adidas. Giles Birkhead, senior sales director at Ashworth Europe, is taking over Camp’s responsibilities on an interim basis, but as part of the integration of Ashworth and Adidas, ...
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Callaway Meets Forecast, Acushnet Loses Ground
Acushnet, parent company of Titleist, Cobra and FootJoy, recorded an operating loss of $18.3 million for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with a $6.7 million loss for 2007, as sales dropped by 13.4 percent to $212.2 million. The loss amounted to $6.1 million excluding charges. For the ...
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Hartmarx Goes Into Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois has accepted a request by the venerable American sportswear group to be placed under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from its creditors. The company is particularly well known in the golf apparel sector as the holder of the Jack Nicklaus and ...
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Quiksilver Cuts Costs – Will It Sell Dc Shoes?
Quiksilver has announced a reorganization in its Americas region, intended to trim expenses by more than 10 percent, or about $40 million per year. It will eliminate 200 positions, with 150 of them accounting for one-third of the savings. Nearly 20 percent of the cuts will concern company managers. ...
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Lafuma’S Purchase Of Eider Pays Off For Year
Sales for Lafuma Group were up by 14.6 percent to €53.5 million for the first quarter of the 2009 fiscal year, which ended Dec. 31. However, excluding Eider, which the company bought last year, revenues were down by 5.5 percent. The drop came after a particularly strong fourth ...
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Amer Sports’ Results Should Be Mixed
Analysts believe that, for the 2008 fiscal year, Amer Sports is going to report a 21 percent drop in adjusted operating profit to €73 million, with annual sales down by 4.6 percent to €1,576 million. Amer will not release its results until Feb. 5, but 11 analysts pooled their mean ...
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Turmoil In The South African Market
O’Neill has signed an agreement that will see its apparel, accessories and wetsuits distributed throughout southern Africa through a new licensee, Pure Sport Apparel of South Africa. The markets covered are South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia, Mozambique and Réunion Island. As part of the agreement, Pure Sport will open ...
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79,942 Say Goodbye To Bread & Butter Barcelona
The most recent Bread & Butter fair, held on Jan. 21-23 in Barcelona, featured 800 brands and 79,942 visitors from more than 100 countries, slightly below figures from last year. After four years and eight shows, it was the last time it was to be held in Barcelona; next year ...
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Intersport Germany Puts Street Shoes On
Intersport Germany has acquired substantial stakes in the two main activities of Sabu, one of the three leading buying groups for shoe retailers in its country. It has bought 50 percent of its purchasing and marketing operations, called Sabu Schuh & Marketing GmbH, as well as 25 percent of Sabu’s ...
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Jjb’S Saga Continues, With New Legal Twists
The British sports retailer was in turmoil again this week after it warned investors about worse-than-expected results and its chief executive, Chris Ronnie, admitted that he had lost the 27.5 percent stake in the company that catapulted him into JJB’s hottest executive seat. JJB Sports’ board of directors announced yesterday ...
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Jd Holds Strong Over Holiday Season
JD Sports Fashion has announced that, for the period from Dec. 2 to Jan. 3, it managed to keep its gross margin similar to 2007-08, when comparable store sales were up by 9.6 percent. This year they climbed by 2.8 percent in the five-week period. This breaks down to 1.0 ...
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But Blacks Isn’T Faring So Well
Blacks Leisure says that its operating profits will fall short of market expectations, citing a 3.9 percent drop in comparable store sales in the 18-week period ended Jan. 3, with declines of 0.5 percent drop in outdoor revenues and 19.2 percent in boardwear sales. For the six weeks leading ...
