G-Lord, a recently founded buying group for shoe retailers in Germany, wants to build up relations with the sports brands on behalf of its affiliated shoe retailers, as it has already done in the areas of comfort, fashion and children’s shoes. This alternative German footwear buying group has reported a 75 percent increase in its centralized settlements last year to €75 million and is targeting €85 million for 2010. Earnings rose to €244,000 from €164,000 in 2008. The number of retail members went up by 155 to 678 and their sales rose on average by 4 percent on a comparable store basis.