Latest Headlines – Page 466
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Growing Prince Reorganizes European Management And Distribution
Prince has reorganized its European management and the supply chain to optimize its presence in the tennis market and to improve deliveries after European sales increases of 18 percent overall and 35 percent in racquets in the course of 2005. The sales gains were largely due to the success of ...
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New Shareholder For Profitable Wintersteiger
The holding company of the Lange family, whose interests include a 50 percent stake in the Jungheinric Group, the world’s largest supplier of fork lifts, has acquired a 44.9 percent shareholding in Wintersteiger. The sellers are UBF Mittelstandsfinanzierung, an Austrian investment company controlled by Bank Austria that is cashing out ...
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Sympatex, Which May Change Hands, Launches Its Own Branded Lines
Morgan Stanley and Annex Capital, an investment company, have reportedly asked German anti-trust authorities for permission to take over Ploucquet, the German textile company that owns Sympatex and the European operations of Outlast. The report could not be confirmed, but Morgan Stanley already made a big move in this direction ...
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Völkl Makes A Pact With The Unions
Völkl has reached an agreement with the vocal German trade unions to reduce production costs at its ultra-modern ski factory in Straubing, enabling the company to retain some German manufacturing for nearly all of its ranges. Völkl had previously outsourced production for some of its cheaper junior skis to the ...
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Accounting Review Leads K2 Into A Big Loss
K2 reported a loss of $232.2 million in its 4th quarter ended Dec. 31, as compared to a profit of $13.5 million in the same period a year earlier. The severe loss was the result of a writedown of intangibles after a routine accounting assessment last November showed that K2’s ...
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Deckers Shifts European Distribution
Deckers Corporation has been tweaking lately the distribution scheme for its various brands in Europe and in the rest of the world. New distributors have been selected for UGG in Germany and France, for Teva in Panama and for Simple in Italy, Spain and Panama. Wave and Motion will handle ...
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Acushnet Does Well Outside Usa, Says It Won’T Be Sold
The addition of a new distribution center in Korea helped Acushnet, the golf division of Fortune Brands, to grow faster outside the USA than in its domestic market, and the recent installation of a similar facility in China should have a similar effect on its 2006 turnover. Acushnet posted ...
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Ashworth Does Well In Europe
Sales were strong in Europe for the company its 1st quarter ended Jan. 31, and drove revenues outside of the USA to an increase of 19.3 percent to $5.8 million. The Callaway and Ashworth brands both performed well in the continent, with headwear, women’s sweaters and men’s fashion collections showing ...
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Cutter & Buck Names New Management, Licenses Out Some Foreign Sales
Cutter & Buck reported strong results for its 3rd quarter ended Jan. 31, 2006 across all channels, but its sales outside of the USA fell by 12.1 percent to $754,000 as the company continued a process of shifting some of its foreign business from distributors to licensees. The company’s ...
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Easton Appoints New Eurochief
Easton Sports Canada, which is responsible for sales of Easton products outside the USA, has promoted Scott Corbett and Luc Leboeuf to new positions to manage the Canadian and European markets for the company. Corbett becomes European hockey sales and brand manager, replacing in effect Leboeuf. The latter will occupy ...
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Positive Echoes From Ispo Russia
The organizers report a total of 6,823 visitors over the four-day period of the fair, a marked improvement from just over 4,000 one year ago, when it was still called In-Sports, but below the attendance of last September, which was marked by the cancellation of the MISS fair. The collaboration ...
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Foot Locker Remains Weak In Europe
Foot Locker struggled in Europe in 2005 and expects 2006 to be difficult as well. The retailer will continue this year to reduce its inventory in Europe. Foot Locker’s management does not expect margins in the continent to ever be as large as they were a few years ago, but ...
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Ashley Adds Hargreaves To His Stables
Mike Ashley, the maverick owner of Sports World International, continues his raid on the British sports retail business with the acquisition of Hargreaves Sports, a middle-sized family-owned retailer. The proposed deal has not been publicly announced, but it was unveiled to Hargreaves’ staff at its head offices in Portsmouth last ...
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Reebok Will Drag Down Adidas’ Results
Adidas managers must have gulped hard as they discovered a much sharper than expected downturn in Reebok sales and orders over the last months. However, the German company is confident that Reebok’s integration into the German group will yield visible improvements from the second half of this year. Reebok’s ...
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Adidas Grows By 27.2% In Quarter
Buoyed by impressive sales growth in the fourth quarter, Adidas has achieved another year of double-digit expansion. The surge in sales reflects on-going expansion in the American and Asian markets, but after several quarters of sluggishness Adidas also performed vigorously in Europe, partly owing to the launch of products related ...
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New Management Reshuffle At Adidas
Erich Stamminger, president of the Adidas brand in the joint new Adidas-Reebok group, has promoted some of his closest allies to fill certain strategic positions in his team. All of the regional management positions have been upheld, but the company’s long-time creative director, Michael Michalsky, left the company earlier this ...
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Umbro Is Bullish After Improved Results
Umbro wants to become at least the #3 in football in every market in terms of sales of on-the-field products, in contrast with Puma’s ambition to be clear #3 overall, including lifestyle soccer products, but says its football-inspired lifestyle products should come to represent 5 percent of its global sales. ...
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Quiksilver Benefits From Rossignol’S Acquisition
The newly acquired operations of the Rossignol Group, including Cleveland Golf, were responsible for $192 million of the $198.3 million increase in the revenues of Quiksilver during the three months ended Jan. 31. No comparable year-earlier figures are available for Rossignol, but it seems that the group performed ...
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Lafuma Buys A Brand Of Tongs
The growing French outdoor group has acquired Bishoes, a French company specializing in high-end tongs which is going to complement nicely the product range of Oxbow. It boasts an operating margin of about 10 percent on sales of €1.2 million for 2005. Eric Maydew, a surf expert who founded the ...
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Pressure Mounts Around Eu’S Anti-dumping Duties
It’s almost certain that the European Commission will exempt all the so-called STAF (special technology athletic footwear) shoes coming into the European Union above €9 a pair from the anti-dumping duties proposed by Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson (see previous issue). In spite of efforts by the Italian sporting goods industry ...
