Latest Headlines – Page 463
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Odlo And Kjus Change Ownership
TowerBrook Capital Partners has acquired a majority stake in Odlo Sports Group, paying between one and two times the company’s annual revenues which grew last year by 20 percent to about 120 million Swiss francs (€76m-$95m). The $2.5 billion international investment company, which has offices in London and New York, ...
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Erik Mhyren Runs Mountain Force
Erik Mhyren, a veteran of the Norwegian and European sporting goods market who left as manager of Lasse Kjus International last October, is now the chief executive of a new active sportswear company, Mountain Force, set up in Klosters, Switzerland last January. The major shareholder is Peter Jud, well-known in ...
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Basicnet More Than Doubles In Value After Shedding Chinese Brand Rights
With the share price now at €1.31, up from the previous level of about 50 cents, the stock market value of BasicNet has more than doubled to some €78 million. The feat is the result of an announcement that the Italian company is netting US$35 million from the sale of ...
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Outdoor Division Propels Vf In Quarter
VF Corp. performed better than it had anticipated in the 1st quarter, ended March 31, as the company’s net income rose by 12 percent to $128,185,000, a record high. Operating income was up by 8.8 percent to $202,947,000 from revenues that grew by 5.3 percent to $1,665,733,000. VF’s ...
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Merrell Continues To Drive Wolverine
For Wolverine World Wide’s overall European business, revenues were up by 12 percent and profits grew by double digits. The Michigan-based company continues to grow strongly through its strategy of building a strong portfolio of lifestyle brands, reporting a 7.2 percent increase in total revenues to $262.8 million in its ...
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Shift Towards Eyewear Begins To Show In Oakleys’S First Quarter
In the 1st quarter ended March 31, the company’s optics sales had strong growth of 12.3 percent to $107.0 million, underlining the recent announcement by Oakley’s new management that it would shift its focus away from apparel and footwear and more to its core optical business. Several factors played into ...
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Cultures Clash Or Complement Each Other At Adidas And Reebok
When he traveled to London two weeks ago to make a speech on the benefits of Reebok’s costly acquisition, Herbert Hainer, Adidas’ chief executive, carried with him a pair of Reebok’s Premiere running shoes to try them out. Hainer admitted that he had yet to buy his first pair of ...
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Adidas Has Begun Integrating The Supply Chain For Its Two Brands
As part of the structural changes being implemented following its tie-up with Reebok, Adidas is centralizing distribution and logistic functions which were previously in the hands of their respective headquarters, their subsidiaries and their service providers, triggering annual projected savings of €20 million a year. Three-fourths of these cost savings ...
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Poland’S Diverse Opens Shop In The West
While enjoying heady growth in Poland and in several other East European countries, the Polish sports lifestyle brand is opening new stores in France, Germany, Switzerland and other countries, following a successful model already tested in Hungary and the Czech Republic. Diverse opened its first French store in the ...
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Sos Has Made A Comeback Under New Ownership
SOS, the Swedish ski apparel brand, has made an impressive comeback under new ownership over the last three years. While it had somewhat faded away over the previous years, SOS has been enjoying buoyant growth after a repositioning in Sweden. It reached sales of 70 million Swedish kronor (€7.5m-$9.2m) last ...
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New Women-only Retail Concept Is Born In France
Two brothers intend to fill the gap in women-oriented French sports retailing by launching a fresh format called Attractive. Christophe and Nicolas Deconinck will open the first store under this name on 150 square meters in Paris next September, and they are planning to build up a network of about ...
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Intersport Retailers Reach Global Sales Of €7.73 Billion After Vat
The retailers affiliated with Intersport around the world increased their sales by 5.4 percent in 2005, reaching an estimated total turnover after value-added tax of €7.73 billion. Franz Julen, chief executive of Intersport International Corp. (IIC), is confident that the growth rate will be the same or higher this year, ...
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Adidas Goes For Teams, Reebok For Icons
The tie-up between Adidas and Reebok has begun to take shape with the spectacular transfer of Reebok’s exclusive licensed apparel deal with the National Basketball Association (NBA) to Adidas from the next playing season until 2017. The newly formed Adidas Group says that Adidas can help spread the practice of ...
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Adidas Group Expects €500 Million In Additional Revenues From The Merger
The Adidas group has upgraded its sales forecast for the next years, after intense discussions with Reebok apparently revealed more growth opportunities than the two companies spotted at the time when Adidas negotiated the costly €3.78 billion acquisition last August. While the short-term challenges related to the takeover are bigger ...
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The French Sporting Goods Market Grew By Only 1% In 2005
It’s been the lowest growth for the big French market in at least 20 years. French consumers went shopping in the sporting goods stores like before, in spite of the absence of any major international sports competitions, but they spent less, partly because average selling prices declined and because of ...
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Swiss Retailers Scored Well In The Winter
The Swiss market didn’t fare better than the French one in the past calendar year. ASMAS, the country’s sporting goods retailers’ association, estimates that it grew overall by only 1-2 percent to about 2 billion Swiss francs (€1,269m-$1,539m), excluding bicycles. Footwear did much better than clothing. However, the 2005/06 ...
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Women And Seniors Practice Sport More In Switzerland
In Switzerland, a rich country that tends to set trends in consumer behavior, people aged between 60 and 69 are sportier than those between the ages of 30 and 59, according to the recently released Mach Consumer 2005 study. The relative availability of free time and a desire to stay ...
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Byron Hero Resurfaces In Ciesse Piumini’S Buyout
Ciesse Piumini, an Italian sports apparel brand connected with the origins of the down jacket in Tuscany more than 20 years ago, has been taken over by a management team backed by Global Yield Fund, which belongs to an international investment fund called GEM or Global Emerging Markets. The transaction ...
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Russian Bicycles Should Come To The Eu Soon Via Kaliningrad
Alisa has opened a factory in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, where it plans to assembly children’s bicycles and other types of bikes, initially for the Russian market. Because of its geographical location – between Poland and Lithuania and facing Sweden across the Baltic Sea – an expansion into the ...
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Dahon May Produce In Europe
Dahon Bicycles will have its folding bicycles manufactured for the Chinese market through a deal with the Kelin Group, a bicycle producer located in Northern China, and the company will soon announce similar plans for manufacturing in Europe. The expansion will be made through alliances, particularly with OEM production and ...
