Latest Headlines – Page 276
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TAF continues to do even better than Intersport
The Athlete's Foot (TAF), which has belonged to Intersport International Corp. since 2013, raised its retail sales by 6 percent in 2015 to €307 million, with an increase of 14.3 percent in local currencies. The TAF business was flat in the U.S. but rose at a double-digit rate in Mexico.TAF's ...
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Buoyant holiday season for JD’s sports stores
JD Sports Fashion reports that its comparable store sales increased by 10.6 percent at its various sports retail chains in the U.K. and elsewhere in Europe during the five weeks ended Jan. 2, after a buoyant holiday season. The group thus predicts that its headline profit before tax and exceptional ...
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SDI builds up Dick’s and Iconix stakes
Sports Direct International (SDI) has continued to invest in other sports and retail companies, raising its financial interest in the Iconix Brand Group and acquiring a smaller stake in Dick's Sporting Goods, the leading U.S. sporting goods retailer. Both investments were made through so-called contracts for difference (CFD), which give ...
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21sportsgroup expands online with Vaola
21sportsgroup, the German retail group that acquired Planet Sports last year, has snapped up another online specialist, Vaola, a German retailer focusing on outdoor, running and football products. 21sportsgroup said Vaola will continue to be run independently. Its parent company, Mysportsgroup, will become one of the group's three subsidiaries, along ...
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Women drive the German market
The German sporting goods market grew by 3 percent in 2015, according to the NPD Group, driven by female customers' purchases (we published a big report on the women's sports market in Germany last year). Purchases of athletic or sports-inspired apparel and footwear made by German customers online jumped by ...
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Bauer's parent buys Easton Hockey
Performance Sports Group (PSG) is building up its number one market position in hockey by taking over the Easton Hockey business from Chartwell Investments, the private equity firm that had taken it over in August 2014 from BRG Sports, the successor company of Easton-Bell Sports.PSG, parent company of Bauer and ...
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Brunswick buys Cybex
The parent company of Life Fitness, which has been in a tussle with Technogym for supremacy in the growing fitness equipment market, is consolidating its leadership with its takeover of Cybex International. In any event, the acquisition will help Brunswick Corp. to implement a previously stated plan to double its ...
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Nautilus expands internationally
As reported in our last issue, the $115 million acquisition of Octane Fitness is expected to help Nautilus to expand internationally, as Octane's sales outside North America represent 23 percent of its turnover, compared with only 2 percent for Nautilus. The process has already started, with Nautilus appointing several international ...
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Black Diamond Europe relocates to Innsbruck
As we had indicated in our previous issue, Black Diamond is closing its European office near Basel in Switzerland. Only seven of its 40-odd employees will stay with the company and move to Innsbruck, the vibrant outdoor city in Austria chosen as the new venue, including two managers, Craig Foster ...
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Rossignol claims market share gains, diversifies further
Orders of snow sports products declined by 3 percent in value for the Rossignol Group in the first nine months of its financial year, ended Dec. 31, with a slight increase in the overall price mix. They fell by 4 percent in North America, but they went up in Japan. ...
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ManUnited teams up with Columbia and TaylorMade
Football is the biggest spectator sport. With 660 million fans around the world, half of them in Asia, the Manchester United Football Club is probably still the most famous football club, in spite if its recent under-performance. In an unusual move, the club has entered co-branding partnerships with two major ...
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Staff cuts at GoPro after weak quarter
GoPro is letting go 105 employees, or about seven percent of its staff, after another disappointing quarter that sent its shares tumbling down. The maker of action sports cameras announced last week that its sales for the fourth quarter should reach about $435 million, down by more than 31 percent ...
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New European regulation on personal protective equipment
The European Parliament voted last Wednesday on a new EU regulation for personal protective equipment (PPE) - covering items such as sports helmets, shinguards, diving suits and swimming goggles – which updates the current EU rules on these products. The European Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry (Fesi), which represents ...
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Industry stocks rose by 22.7% in 2015
The publicly listed sporting goods companies performed better than the overall stock market in 2015 once again. Their combined stock market capitalization rose by 22.7 percent, or a little faster than the 19.3 percent gain recorded in 2014, with increases in all regions. Comparatively, the MSCI World Index of 1,663 ...
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Sports Direct is not doing well
Shares in Sports Direct International (SDI) took another hit last week after the British sports retailer warned that it suffered from deteriorating retail trading conditions and unseasonal weather over the holiday season. SDI thus admitted that it was no longer confident of reaching a previously set target of £420 million ...
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Ashley promises (small) pay rise for SDI staff, gets more flak
After growing criticism of pay and working conditions at Sports Direct International (SDI), the company announced at the very end of last year that it has made a commitment to increase pay above the U.K. minimum wage for its directly employed U.K. staff and directly-engaged casual workers, from the start ...
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SDI builds up interest in Umbro's owner
Sports Direct International (SDI) has built up an economic interest amounting to about 9 percent by acquiring 4.3 million shares in Iconix Brand Group, the owner of Umbro and other sports brands. A document filed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) indicates that SDI has been steadily buying ...
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Rottefella accuses Amer of imitating its ski bindings
Atomic and Salomon have launched a new binding system in all the cross-country ski markets, called Prolink, that is compatible with the Rottefella NNN binding system. The two subsidiaries of Amer Sports continue to offer Salomon's own SNS system as an alternative.Rottefella reacted on Jan. 5 by sending a written ...
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Swiss ski competition inquiry is closed
The Swiss competition commission, Weko, says it has closed a preliminary investigation involving Fischer's and Völkl's trading practices in the Swiss ski market. It was started in October when Weko was made aware of a letter sent out by Fischer to its Swiss retail partners, in which the Austrian supplier ...
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Nautilus buys Octane
After making a lot of progress in sales and profits, Nautilus is taking over Octane Fitness, a complementary firm in the fitness equipment sector, buying its parent company, OF Holdings, for $115 million from North Castle Partners and other shareholders. The purchase price values Octane at about 10.5 times its ...
