The ABC group, consisting of A.S. Adventure in Belgium, Bever in the Netherlands and Cotswold Outdoor in the U.K., firmed up its lead as Europe's largest specialist outdoor retailer last year. Its sales reached about €291.1 million, up by an impressive 22 percent. While this includes a spate of store openings, the group also achieved comparable sales growth of 7.8 percent, aided by the weather and structural investments.
The ABC group's lead is even more striking excluding mail order, which accounted for sales of €98 million at Globetrotter for its last financial year. This compares with mail order sales of only €7.3 million for the ABC group this year, equivalent to about 2.5 percent of its turnover. They chiefly consist of electronic sales for Cotswold Outdoor, which reached £5.4 million (€6.5m-$8.6m) for the year.
A big detailed and exclusive article on this company was published in the latest issue of our Outdoor Industry Compass earlier this week, along with important articles on Fenix Outdoor, Vaude, Patagonia, Nomad, Schöffel, Canada Goose, Arc'teryx, Mammut, Merrell, Millet and many other companies that we cannot run here for space reasons. Subscribers to SGI Europe can get The Compass at half the price. Contact us for a sample.
