Latest Headlines – Page 409
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Will Anti-dumping Duties Be Lifted?
There is all of a sudden a likelihood that the European Union will stop on Oct. 6 the anti-dumping duties that it set two years ago on Chinese and Vietnamese leather shoes. A spokesman for the European Trade Commissioner, Peter Mandelson, indicated that he will probably take a decision on ...
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Quiksilver Sells Rossi To Former Ceo
In disclosing better-than-expected results yesterday, executives of the Quiksilver group expressed deep relief that they had sealed an agreement for the sale of Rossignol, the French ski company that has been a drag for the board sports group since its acquisition three years ago along with Cleveland Golf’s operations, which ...
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The Lights Go Out At Pale
The difficult winter sports business has recorded a major casualty. Pale, the big Austrian contract manufacturer for alpine skis and snowboards, will halt its business soon. The first of around 100 employees at its Austrian production facility in St. Stefan near the Slovenian border are to leave in September, and ...
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Eybl Quits Intersport, But Sticks To The Red-blue Logo
Effective Sept. 1, Intersport Eybl is no longer a member of Intersport Austria, but remains licensee of the red-blue Intersport logo for a period of five years. Eybl was an Intersport member for 42 years, but the structure of the buying group, composed of basically small and medium-sized retailers who ...
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Foot Locker Turns Around In Quarter But Struggles In Europe
After reporting a loss of $18 million in the second quarter of 2007, Foot Locker came back with a profit of $18 million for the same period ended last Aug. 2. Sales were up by 1.5 percent to $1.3 billion even though comparable-store sales were down by 0.5 percent. The ...
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Rising Billabong Buys Dakine
While reporting good results for its financial year ended last June 30, the Australian company announced that it has bought DaKine Hawaii, the boardsports equipment company which is well know internationally for its cool backpacks, bags, gloves and winter products. Billabong International is paying $99.9 million for the company initially, ...
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A Complex Legal Saga Debuts Over The Karhu Brand
Karhu Holding BV, the Dutch company that acquired intellectual property rights for the Finnish sports brand earlier this year (see SGI Europe No. 19-21+22 of June 27) on behalf of two U.S.-based sports industry executives, has become embroiled in a fierce legal dispute with the former owner of the trademark, ...
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Lehman Invests In Sram
Lehman Brothers Merchant Banking, one of the investment funds of Lehman Brothers, has acquired a minority stake in this large international supplier of bicycle components, whose revenues will approach $500 million this year. SRAM said it had sought a strategic financial investor to support its continued growth in the global ...
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Head Is Downbeat For The Quarter
From economic sluggishness to raw material costs, the poor spring weather and cautious retailers, a full array of adverse conditions were enumerated by Head as it reported another sales drop and a deeper operating loss for the second quarter, as well as a meager order book for the coming winter ...
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Skechers Is Still After Heelys
The chief executive of Skechers, Robert Greenberg, said in a statement that his company was still “very interested” in buying Heelys, although the wheeled-shoe company rejected last month a $142.8 million offer, adding that it was not interested in pursuing discussions at this stage. Greenberg indicated that his company may ...
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Some Brands Benefited From Olympic Exposure More Than Others
Several leading sports brands claimed outstanding results at the Beijing Olympics, as the sports feast in the world’s second-largest sports market came to an end. Nike and Adidas both had their triumphs at the Games, but the two mega-spenders were arguably upstaged by other brands from Puma to Speedo and ...
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Management Changes At Nike In Europe
Carlos Homedes, who has been country manager of Nike on the Iberian Peninsula for three and a half years, has been given addition responsibilities. He is now also supervising the company’s business in Greece, Cyprus, Croatia and Israel. Homedes has been with Nike for 14 years. He started in retail ...
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Adidas Integrates Reebok Further In Europe, Elevating Roland Auschel
To speed up Reebok’s recovery and expansion in Europe, Adidas executives will take the brand’s management into their own hands. Roland Auschel, in charge of EMEA markets for the Adidas brand, took up the same position at Reebok at the beginning of this month. The general objective behind the move ...
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Adidas Settles With Wal-mart
Wal-Mart has settled the latest trademark-infringement lawsuit brought by Adidas accusing it of selling sneakers that were confusingly similar with its three-stripe design. The two parties asked that the suit be dismissed on Aug. 29, two months before it was to go to trial. Terms of the settlement were not ...
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Pentland Has Big Projects For Ellesse
Pentland Group is about to complete a switch from a wholesale distribution mode to a licensing mode for Ellesse. As with Speedo in the USA, the licensing mode has already been successful for Ellesse in Italy, where the brand was born and where the Cisalfa Sport chain has had it ...
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New Licensed Baseball Products Are Developed For Europe
Major League Baseball (MLB) has started focusing more sharply on the European market, with several new licenses and dedicated product ranges. Among the novelties is a European apparel line launched by Majestic, the MLB’s global apparel licensee, in the U.K., France, Germany and Italy over the next weeks. MLB ...
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The Global Sports Goods Market Rose By 4.0% In 2007, Says Npd
Consumption of sports equipment, apparel and footwear grew by 4.0 percent to $278.4 billion around the world in 2007 in terms of dollar retail sales including sales taxes, according to the annual survey released by the authoritative NPD Group. Among the various regions of the world, the biggest growth took ...
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Big Downturn At Karstadt, But Arcandor Improves Sharply
Thomas Middelhoff, executive chairman of the Arcandor group, says it is still in the process of determining a definitive strategic direction for its department store business, represented by its remaining Karstadt and Karstadt Sport stores. In any case, it is pushing forward with cost-cutting measures following big declines in the ...
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Satisfactory Six Months For German Sport 2000
In the first six months of 2008, the German and Swiss sporting goods retailers affiliated with Sport 2000 raised their retail sales after VAT by 7 percent to approximately €650 million - a figure that is not necessarily accurate because it is based on those supplied by a selected panel ...
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Disappointing Results At Go Sport Group
The French sports retailing group caused disappointment as it unveiled a drop in sales and a deepening loss for the first half of the year, reflecting the depressed consumer climate in France as well as ongoing issues for the generalist Go Sport banner in the country. The group’s overall ...
