Latest Headlines – Page 423
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Trespass Buys Nevisport
Nevisport, the Scottish-based outdoor retailer, will be able to expand rapidly over the next years following its acquisition by the owners of Trespass late last year. Afzal and Akmal Kushi, the brothers who are behind this Scottish brand of outdoor and winter sports clothing, estimate that there is space for ...
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New Md For Stadium
Gustaf Öhrn will replace Ulf Eklöf as the new group president of Stadium as of Apr. 1. One of his primary tasks will be to look at ways of increasing the profitability of the leading Swedish sporting goods retail chain after heavy investments in the past few years. He is ...
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New Management For Rossignol
David Morgan, the 48-year-old chief executive of Quiksilver, was appointed last Friday as chief executive of the Rossignol Group, replacing Jean-François Gautier. A former financial executive of L’Oréal who worked there at the same time as Bernard Mariette, current president of Quiksilver, he joined him at the American company two ...
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New Core Shareholder For Amer
After a sharp drop in its share price early last month, Amer Sports has attracted a new investor and seen the return of a more familiar shareholder. Novator Finland Oy, the Finnish arm of a UK-based investment fund launched by Thor Björgolfsson, an Icelandic billionaire businessman, bought forward contracts for ...
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Elan Is Considering Acquisitions
Elan, the Slovenian ski company, is eyeing acquisitions, most likely in areas that are not related to winter sports, in contrast with a certain French press report. The Slovenian government, which indirectly holds a majority of Elan’s shares, was said last year to be seeking to exit the company before ...
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Big Plunge In The Cross-country Ski Market Hits Fischer
Fischer is predicting a drop of 50 percent in sales of cross-country skis to the trade during the current season, after an estimated 37 percent drop to around 1.2 million pairs during the Winter 2006/07 season. This includes only the top portion of the big Russian market, estimated at ...
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Nike Has Umbro In The Pocket
Only regulatory approvals still stand in the way of Umbro’s acquisition by Nike, after an overwhelming majority of the English company’s shareholders approved the deal at an extraordinary meeting held earlier this week. The outcome of the vote was almost certain after Sports Direct International (SDI) and JJB Sports, two ...
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Mixed Results For German Buying Groups
Germany’s two largest buying groups both saw their sales dwindle last year due to the downturn of the winter sports business. Members of Intersport Germany lifted their retail sales by 2 percent in the second half, but this was not enough to offset a slide of 5 percent in the ...
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Arcandor Makes A Slim Profit Margin
Arcandor, the German group formerly called Karstadt-Quelle, reported a net profit of €16 million after minority interests for the short new financial year from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30, 2007, thanks exclusively to the results of its tourism subsidiary, Thomas Cook, which delivered operating earnings before amortization and depreciation (EBITDA) ...
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Flat Market In Europe And A Decline In Germany, But The Outlook Is Positive
The European sporting goods market was more or less flat in 2007, according to FEDAS, the European sporting goods retailers’ federation, based essentially on input from the member organizations in Austria, France, Germany, Italy. It estimates the size of the market at about €37 billion at retail, but we feel ...
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The World Federation Embarks On A Novel Course
The World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry has won new members through the announcement of various new programs and initiatives such as intellectual property protection, labelling and e-commerce. One of the key words is “best practice." It will be used by a new Federations Committee chaired by Tom ...
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Columbia Inches Up
Columbia Sportswear Company made a net income of $45,720,000, up from $38,387,000, during the 4th quarter ended on Dec. 31, 2007. Sales increased by 4 percent to $376,758,000, but the weak dollar was responsible for 3 percentage points of the increase and the operating margin declined from 15.4 percent to ...
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Amer Consolidates Its Ski Production
Outstanding snow conditions so far during the winter season have done little to appease worries about the prospects of the global ski business as Amer Sports, the owner of Salomon and Atomic, unveiled a new reorganization plan for its alpine ski business involving about 400 job cuts over the next ...
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Quiksilver Doesn’T Exclude The Sale Of Rossignol Anymore
While warning investors that its results for the current quarter will be worse than expected, Quiksilver said last week that it has mandated JP Morgan to review the opportunity of selling off any of the components of its sports equipment sector. The company will also reduce its expenses and its ...
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Volcom Acquires Electric Visual
Joining the other major surf & skate brands, Volcom has taken over a sunglass specialist to complement its collection. It’s Electric Visual Evolution, a supplier of sunglasses and snow goggles founded by Kip Arnette and Bruce Beach in 2000. Based in San Clemente, California, it has offices also in Hossegor, ...
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Jjb Warns About Declining Results
JJB Sports warned that its profits for the second half of its financial year ending Jan. 27 will be below last year’s level, due to aggressive clearance of unwanted inventories. Although JJB’s comparable store sales rose by about 2.5 percent in the six weeks to Jan. 6, the clean-up cut ...
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Blacks Plans A New Overhaul
The British outdoor retailer has come forward with a new plan to restore the company’s financial performance, after dismal sales of boardsports apparel dragged down the entire group’s sales over the festive season. Sales in Freespirit and O’Neill stores were off by 10.8 percent in the six weeks ended on ...
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Sports Direct Confirms Guidance
The management of Sports Direct International foresees an increasingly difficult retail environment in the UK over the next six months, but says the “resilience” of its business allows it to stand by the forecast it had made last Dec. 19 for its performance during the financial year through the end ...
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Adidas May Soon Look For Another Acquisition, Maybe An Outdoor Company
Herbert Hainer, Adidas’ chief executive, said in an interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung earlier this month that the company may be able to achieve its targets in terms of financial leverage earlier than planned. While it was hoping to reach a debt/equity ratio of 50 percent by 2010, compared with ...
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Ashworth Acquires Sun Ice
Ashworth Golf Company has acquired the Sun Ice and Sunice trademarks from the Fletcher Leisure Group (FLG). FLG, one of Canada’s leading suppliers of golf apparel and equipment, is owned by Ashworth’s new chief executive, Allan Fletcher, who has been with the company since October of last year. ...
