Haglöfs, the Swedish outdoor brand, reported an almost flat turnover of 626.1 million Swedish kronor (€70.6m-$88.2m) for the past calendar and fiscal year, but its sales jumped by 4.5 percent in constant currencies. The company supplied figures on its own business for 2011 after Asics, the Japanese group that owns Haglöfs, published its own figures for the fiscal year until the end of March.
Haglöfs' sales dropped by about 5 percent to SEK 159 million (€17.9m-$22.4m) in Sweden, partly owing to the mild weather at the end of the year. Haglöfs has lost some more shelf space in Sweden this year, since Intersport is no longer carrying The North Face and has reduced its assortment of Haglöfs products, to the advantage of Marmot and private labels. The warm weather and delivery issues affected sales in Finland as well, as previously reported.
On the other hand, Haglöfs lifted its sales by about 31 percent in Norway and it enjoyed growth of about 15 percent in Germany last year, driven by a strong uptake at SportScheck.
Sales in Asia, which has been a target for investment since Haglöfs' takeover by Asics, jumped by 39 percent last year, with strong improvements in Japan and the opening of a subsidiary in South Korea. Asian sales should continue to rise this year with the switch from a distributor to a subsidiary in Japan, and a new distribution deal in China.
Its investments in Asia were the main cause behind a drop in the company's earnings before interest, tax and amortization (Ebitda), which reached 10.0 percent of sales last year, down by 2.3 percentage points compared with the previous year. Haglöfs attributed this largely to the expansion of its staff, which grew from 128 employees in 2010 to 155 last year, with most of the additions in the company's product team, in international sales and in Asia (more in The Outdoor Industry Compass).
