Latest Headlines – Page 444
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Accell Moves Strongly Into Belgium
Accell Group, the Dutch bicycles and fitness company, has set its sights on the Belgian market with the acquisition of Brasseur, one of the country’s largest bicycle companies. Selling several brands of bicycles and a wide array of bicycle parts and accessories, Brasseur has an annual turnover of ...
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Slew Of New Products Help Callaway In 2006 With More On The Way
Several new product launches and high margins for Callaway balls and accessories helped to expand the company’s gross margin by 200 basis points to 34.0 percent in the 4th quarter, ended Dec. 31, and many more new products are on the way. The gains were slightly offset by lower margins ...
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Glenmuir Has Turned Around
This Scottish-based golf apparel specialist has achieved growth in revenues and profits after reorganizing the sourcing apparatus and supporting the brand with more marketing and with an expanded product range. Glenmuir’s revenues grew by double digits in 2006 from a stable level of £7.9 million (€12.0m,$15.6m) in 2005. There is ...
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Under Armour Will Double In Europe
This fast-growing American brand, which had a big stand at ISPO, estimates that its 2007 net revenues will rise by 30-35 percent to $560-580 million, ahead of previous predictions that called for 20-25 percent growth. The same is true for operating earnings, which are expected to increase by 30-35 percent ...
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Gore-tex Invests Strongly On Its Brand
W.L. Gore has no plans to expand its own range of functional sports clothing beyond the areas of cycling and running, as this could antagonize some of its licensees. However the company plans to spend €80 million on the Gore-Tex brand in marketing and POS merchandising in Europe over the ...
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Sales fell by 0.6 percent to $1,553 million for the...
Sales fell by 0.6 percent to $1,553 million for the Foot Locker group in its 4th quarter, ended Jan. 27, and comparable store sales were down as well. While European sales dropped by high single digits, they generated sold gross margins this time, helping the company to improve net earnings ...
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Steep sales declines in December strongly reduced the sales hikes...
Steep sales declines in December strongly reduced the sales hikes that members of the two largest German buying groups, Intersport and Sport 2000, had enjoyed over the previous months. Thanks to the World Cup of football and to sharp sales rises in January and July last year, Intersport stores still ...
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Sport Alliance, the Italian buying group affiliated with Sport 2000...
Sport Alliance, the Italian buying group affiliated with Sport 2000 International, has signed a exclusive 5-year deal with Gramicci, an American brand of outdoor clothing. In a precedent-setting move, it will not only treat it as an exclusive brand for its own retail members, but it will also build up ...
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The new Belgian partner of Sport 2000 International is the...
The new Belgian partner of Sport 2000 International is the Belgian Sports World chain of 22 stores owned by Mike Ashley and formerly called Disport. Ashley is already the exclusive buying partner of Sport 2000 for the UK. Ashley will use Sports World’s Belgian warehouse also to service the 9 ...
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The French Sport 2000 buying group estimates that its retail...
The French Sport 2000 buying group estimates that its retail members raised their sales by 17 percent to €550 million last year and predicts that they will grow further to €600-630 million in 2007. This doesn’t include its new network of Mondovélo bike stores, which should grow from 7 to ...
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L-Fashion Group has bought an 18-year-old Finnish company that markets...
L-Fashion Group has bought an 18-year-old Finnish company that markets a line of clothing for young women called Your Face, with annual sales of about €10 million. It has 10 shops and uses a very interesting merchandising concept that the company wants to use for its other operations. The group, ...
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Describing the move as a “historical step,” FESI, the European...
Describing the move as a “historical step,” FESI, the European federation of the sporting goods industry, announced at ISPO that all the major European ski manufacturers – Atomic, Blizzard, Dynastar, Elan, Fischer, Head, Nordica, Rossignol, Salomon and Völkl – have agreed on a common open protocol for RFID chips that ...
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The Italian snow sports market fared less well than others...
The Italian snow sports market fared less well than others during the 2005/06 selling season, based on data released by the Italian Ski Pool, which groups all the major brands in the sector. Total sales of snow hardware were down by 7.66 percent to €98.3 million, as compared to the ...
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Fischer, which made a strategic decision a few years ago...
Fischer, which made a strategic decision a few years ago not to enter the snowboard market, is introducing the Duke 07, a big high-speed mono-ski for powder skiing, intended for snowboarders who want to switch over to free-style alpine skiing. It’s going to be offered only to a few dealers ...
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Vincent Lamoureux, the 47-year-old Canadian who built up CamelBak’s presence...
Vincent Lamoureux, the 47-year-old Canadian who built up CamelBak’s presence in Europe and then ran its international operations, has become joint managing director of MET, the Italian supplier of bike helmets. He will be in charge of product development, sales and marketing, working together with Stefano Madu for production and ...
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Oliver Hundacker has been promoted as joint managing director of...
Oliver Hundacker has been promoted as joint managing director of Erima, the German team sports brand controlled by its present managing director, Wolfram Mannherz. Hundacker, who is 37 years old and was educated in the USA, joined the company in 2000 as head of product. He has been in charge ...
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Scott Lewis will be filling the new position of executive...
Scott Lewis will be filling the new position of executive director at Parasite Design, a French eyewear company launched in 2002. As previously reported, he had decided to leave Oakley after a decade of holding various positions with the company, and was most recently commercial director of the company’s Oakley ...
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In its gradual expansion in Europe, where it has reached...
In its gradual expansion in Europe, where it has reached profitability, K-Swiss plans to set up an Italian sales subsidiary in May or June of this year, with a soft launch for the 3rd quarter and full deliveries for Spring/Summer 2008. It plans to do the same one year later ...
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Icon Health & Fitness, which has not been doing well...
Icon Health & Fitness, which has not been doing well in Germany, is shutting down its German subsidiary in Düsseldorf. It was headed by Mark Richards, responsible also for the UK and recently promoted as European senior operations manager. Instead, the American fitness brand will work from July 2007 through ...
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Speedo has given the master license for China and Taiwan...
Speedo has given the master license for China and Taiwan to Symphony Holdings, starting immediately. Mizuno previously had the license for these territories as well as for Japan, where Mitsui has become Speedo’s new partner, in combination with Goldwin. Symphony has been managing the Reebok brand in China since 2004. ...
