Sumitomo Rubber’s Dunlop Sports business, which includes the Srixon, Cleveland and XXIO brands of tennis, squash, padel and golf products, reported a 29 percent increase in operating profit to 1.44 billion yen (€11.0m) from ¥1.12 billion, on fourth-quarter sales growth of 24 percent to ¥25.33 billion (€193.5m) from ¥20.46 billion. Srixon and Cleveland benefited from the golf momentum through the end of the year, particularly in North America and South Korea, while padel equipment supported the else largely stagnant racquet sports segment. For the full year, revenue rose 44 percent to ¥101.43 billion (€774.9m) from ¥70.26 billion, and operating profit was ¥8.60 billion (€65.7m), compared with a loss of ¥741 million in 2020. The Kobe-based group expects sales at its sports division to rise to ¥105.50 billion (€806.0m) in 2022.
Sumitomo Rubber recently announced that it will reinvigorate the visibility of the Dunlop brand worldwide, starting with the opening of the Japanese Golf Tour in March 2022. Most recently, the Srixon and XXIO brand names were primarily used to market most of the products in the group’s sports business. While golf hats worn by staff and sponsored athletes had recently carried the brand name “Srixon,” they will now carry the Dunlop name. Dunlop Sports has been part of Sumitomo since 1983. The group is also changing the names of its Australian, Thai and South African sports business subsidiaries from “Srixon Sports” to “Dunlop Srixon Sports” this year.
