Latest Headlines – Page 465

  • Article

    Football Fans Spent Nearly €7 Billion On Club-related Merchandise In 2005

    2006-03-24T00:00:00Z

    Football fans in the five largest countries in Europe – the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain – in these markets spent €6.9 billion on their favorite teams’ merchandise in 2005, according to Sport+Markt AG, which interviewed more than 3,000 football fans aged 15-69 for a new study. Fans ...

  • Article

    Louis-dreyfus Is Heard In Om Case

    2006-03-24T00:00:00Z

    Robert Louis-Dreyfus, former chief executive and major shareholder of Adidas, was among 14 people who appeared in the criminal court of Marseille last week in a trial relating to suspected fraud in the accounts of Olympique de Marseille (OM), the French football club owned by Louis-Dreyfus. The investigating magistrate claimed ...

  • Article

    Eu Puts Duties On Shoes From China And Vietnam, Will Monitor Staf Compliance

    2006-03-24T00:00:00Z

    In approving the compromise suggested by Trade Commissioner Peter Madelson, the European Commission has decided to institute a surveillance mechanism to make sure that importers will not circumvent the new provisional regulations by declaring certain casual or adult shoes as athletic or children’s footwear, which will be exempted. ...

  • Article

    Gresvig Strives To Keep The Momentum

    2006-03-21T00:00:00Z

    This big publicly trading Norwegian retailer is counting on its recent merger with a leading apparel retailing group, Voice Norge, to sustain its momentum and to generate higher returns. With a share of between 40 and 45 percent in a national sporting goods market that is estimated to have grown ...

  • Article

    Xxl Wants To Double In Size

    2006-03-21T00:00:00Z

    After a pause, this 5-year-old Norwegian chain of six sports superstores is planning to add six more units over the next two and a half years to reach more critical mass in a market dominated by Gresvig. The investment plan follows a year in which XXL posted its first operating ...

  • Article

    Anton Sport Has Bought Sport 1

    2006-03-21T00:00:00Z

    The Norwegian sporting goods retail market is going through major changes, besides the development of XXL. While ONS Invest, former owner of Voice, has become the controlling shareholder of Gresvig, one of the competing buying groups, Sport 1, has changed in terms of ownership, too, and another one, Sport 25, ...

  • Article

    Good Start-up For Forum Sport, A New Low-cost Retail Concept In Denmark

    2006-03-21T00:00:00Z

    A new Danish sporting goods retailer, Forum Sport, wants to be the Danish low-cost alternative to Intersport, Sport Masters or Sportigan, somewhat like Ryanair or Sterling, the Danish low-cost airline company. It started off in February with its own e-commerce website, forumsport.dk, and it opened its first free-standing store at ...

  • Article

    Fenix Outdoor Makes A Jump In Profits

    2006-03-21T00:00:00Z

    The Swedish outdoor group, which owns Fjällräven and many other brands, performed better than expected in the 4th quarter, thanks in part to continued progress at Hanwag and to a strong Christmas selling season at its own chain of outdoor stores, Naturkompaniet, which has achieved its turnaround in Sweden. The ...

  • Article

    Ic Companys Buys The Distribution Of Peak Performance In Norway

    2006-03-21T00:00:00Z

    IC Companys, the Danish group which owns Peak Performance, has agreed to pay 25 million Danish kroner (€3.4m-$4.1m) to take over the distribution of the Swedish sports apparel brand in Norway from its former exclusive importer, Adventure Sport & Leisure, with effect from next July 1. The business, which generated ...

  • Article

    Exel Buys Pacific Composites

    2006-03-21T00:00:00Z

    Exel Oy has become the world’s largest pultrusion company through the acquisition on Feb. 28 of Pacific Composites, reinforcing its industrial division and allowing the Finnish company to postpone indefinitely the construction of a production factory in Shenzen, China. In addition to its own China plant in Nanjing, Pacific Composites ...

  • Article

    Makers Of Floorball Sticks Expand Into Clothing

    2006-03-21T00:00:00Z

    Some of Sweden’s floorball equipment manufacturers are eyeing line extensions into apparel, since their sales of floorball sticks have begun to flatten in a market that has gone through a certain concentration. One of the most sweeping changes in the market over the last months was in fact the integration ...

  • Article

    The Same Goes For Hockey

    2006-03-21T00:00:00Z

    The two leading suppliers of hockey equipment in Sweden are rebranding their products after their acquisition by larger companies. Backed up by their respective new owners, Nike and Reebok, they are both seeking expansion into apparel as the market for hockey sticks and skates is flattening. Reebok and Jofa ...

  • Article

    Tenson Is Zestfully Repositioned Under New Management

    2006-03-21T00:00:00Z

    The Swedish outdoor brand has overhauled its product range as part of a marketing push that is meant to stem several years of decline. Placed under fresh management last year, Tenson is being repositioned as an outdoor brand with a fashionable and joyous edge, as illustrated by the tagline “zest ...

  • Article

    Hummel Pushes Its Special Lifestyle Offerings Internationally

    2006-03-21T00:00:00Z

    Known mainly for its team sports clothing for football and handball, Hummel International is now putting the accelerator on its sassy range of sports-inspired lifestyle clothing and footwear. Launched four years ago, Hummel’s branded sports fashion program has become an independent profit center within the company and it has come ...

  • Article

    To Be Turns Snowmobile Clothing Into Fashion

    2006-03-21T00:00:00Z

    To Be, a small Swedish company specialized in snowmobile clothing, is beginning to make inroads in the international market. The expansion comes as snowmobiling is catching on in Scandinavia as a sport, instead of just a means of transportation. The Swedish company was established five years ago by Tomas ...

  • Article

    Asics And New Balance Follow In Icebug’S Footsteps With Spiked Running Shoes

    2006-03-21T00:00:00Z

    An entirely new segment is emerging in the running market, in the shape of spiked shoes that are intended to run on ice. It was pioneered by Icebug, a small Swedish company, but ASICS and New Balance are both entering the fray this year, lending more support to its unique ...

  • Article

    The Pedometer Rush Lifts Silva’S Sales

    2006-03-21T00:00:00Z

    More and more exercise walkers, Nordic walkers and runners want to measure their performance, and the growing use of pedometers for this purpose has led Silva, a Swedish company specializing in sports-related instruments, to enjoy heady growth. Sales of these devices started taking off five years ago and they now ...

  • Article

    Exports Are The New Frontier For Denmark’S Active Sportswear Int. Group

    2006-03-21T00:00:00Z

    Active Sportswear Int. is beginning to take the export business seriously now that its leadership on the Danish market for badminton and children’s activewear is consolidated, respectively under the Forza and Color Kids brands. The new objective is to push exports of these two lines up to 50 percent of ...

  • Article

    Ivanhoe Has Sold Its Baltic Facilities

    2006-03-21T00:00:00Z

    The sale of two factories in Lithuania and Estonia should enable Ivanhoe, a Swedish brand of golf and ski sweaters, to invest more forcefully in export markets. The company still makes about 80 percent of its sales in Sweden, but it has begun to expand elsewhere. Ivanhoe is one ...

  • Article

    Garant Will Make A Major New Effort In The Sports Market

    2006-03-15T00:00:00Z

    While waiting for the advent of a new investor, Garant Schuh + Mode has reshuffled its management, appointing a new finance director, Frank Schuffelen, and giving more responsibility to Richard Brekelmans, the successful manager of its Dutch offshoot, for international marketing and the international redeployment of various retail concepts including ...