Holmenkol, the German manufacturer of ski wax and other product care items for sporting goods, has been acquired by the Eimermacher Group, which markets a wide range of products from cosmetics to medication for animals. After the last bad winter, Holmenkol had gone into receivership on July 22. Eimermacher, which has 160 employees, has already been in the sports business through its Swiss subsidiary, Schweizer-Effax, with its brands Effax and Hey Sport and their product ranges of apparel and footwear coatings, as well as Sport Lavit with its line of body care such as shower gel and shampoos. Technically speaking, Holmenkol will be controlled by Sporto-med., another subsidiary of Eimermacher specializing in medical products for physiotherapy, sports medicine and similar categories. Sporto-med. will run Holmenkol as an independent unit and intends to keep both the operations outside Stuttgart and almost all of the 24 employees. The new managing director is Thorsten Teschner, who is simultaneously co-managing director of Sporto-med. Teschner expects profitable earnings already in 2013 with total sales of €5 million and an annual growth of 3-6 percent in the consecutive years. The bulk of Holmenkol's sales come from waxes for snow sports equipment and coatings for outerwear, both of them pretty much on the same level with a smaller range of care products for bicycles. The line of maintenance products for sailing boats will be halted. The new owners promise that Holmenkol has full capacity to deliver to retailers before the start of the upcoming winter season.

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