Latest Headlines – Page 379
-
Article
Columbia attacks Gore in Europe
Columbia Sportswear, along with OutDry Technologies, the Italian developer of breathable membranes that it acquired last year, has appealed to the anti-trust authorities of the European Commission (EC) to check whether the practices of W.L. Gore & Associates are in line with the European Union's competition laws. The plaintiffs allege ...
-
Article
Adidas makes new investments in Germany
The Adidas Group announced today plans for the opening of its biggest distribution center woldwide in the first half of 2013, reaching full capacity by 2015. It will break grounds next August for the €100 million facility, which will be located in Niedersachsenpark, Germany. The new DC will consolidate under ...
-
Article
Dahon produces for Europe in Bulgaria
Dahon, the U.S. brand of folding bicycles, told its distributors at an annual meeting in Zagreb that, starting next year, it is shifting the production of bicycles intended for the European market from Asia to Bulgaria. The company has sealed a strategic partnership with Maxcom, a large-scale Bulgarian bicycle manufacturer, ...
-
Article
Kneissl’s star sinks again
Midnight last Wednesday was the deadline for Sheikh Al Jaber to rescue the bankrupt Kneissl company through a payment of about €2.1 million. Yet the billionaire from Saudi Arabia ignored the deadline, so the fate of the legendary Austrian ski brand is again uncertain. A liquidation of the venerable Austrian ...
-
Article
Lotto adds a layer to its Indian partnership
Columbus Shoes, an Indian company that makes and sells footwear under its own brand name, has obtained a sub-license to make and sell footwear under the Italian brand to independent Indian shoe stores. Sports Lifestyle, Lotto's master licensee in India, will continue to source Lotto footwear for sale to key ...
-
Article
Indian market is worth more than €1.6 billion
The Federation of Sports and Play Associations (FSPA) held an India Day at its head office in Stoneleigh Park last month, to mark the release of an in-depth 300-page report on the Indian sports market compiled by EDM Publications, the publisher of Sporting Goods Intelligence Europe, as part of its ...
-
Article
Scott goes direct in South Africa
Scott Sports, the Swiss-based cycling and winter sports company, has acquired a majority stake in Probike, its distributor in South Africa and neighboring markets. The stake was bought from Peter Miller, Probike's outgoing chairman, while his former business partner Brandon Els remains a minority shareholder and managing director of Probike.Probike ...
-
Article
Street soccer brand expands in Europe
Known only in a few restricted circles for its special low-bounce balls cover ed with raw denim, which are meant to be specifically used for playing football in the streets, Manta has never made big strides in the market, especially outside the Netherlands. Its adoption by Foot Locker and the ...
-
Article
Penalty creates first subsidiary outside South America
Penalty, a leading Brazilian producer of shoes and balls for futsal and other team sports, has created its first subsidiary outside South America with Penalty Iberia, which will take over the distribution in Spain and Portugal. Previously, Sports World, a Portuguese company, was the distributor in the region, and it ...
-
Article
Alpargatas posts higher sales and profits
Alpargatas managed to improve its results in the first quarter of this year from the relatively high levels attained in the same period a year ago and in the fourth quarter of 2010, in spite of high raw material costs, mostly by upgrading its price mix and in other ways.This ...
-
Article
VF acquires Timberland, targeting synergies and higher profits
VF Corporation, the owner of The North Face and many other outdoor, sports and jeans brands, has agreed to pay about $2 billion to acquire The Timberland Company, the American firm that owns the Timberland and SmartWool brands. The amount doesn't include extra cash at Timberland. If completed, the tie-up ...
-
Article
Kesko takes over Intersport Russia
Kesko Corporation, the big and successful licensee of Intersport International Corp. in Finland, has signed an agreement to acquire a controlling stake of 80 percent in a new joint venture that will manage and develop the Intersport banner in Russia. The present Russian licensee of Intersport, Melovest, will own the ...
-
Article
Russians become sportier, chains expand
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told his country's Parliament a few weeks ago that he would like to see 70 percent of the population practicing some kind of sport by the year 2015, as is the case in many Western European countries. He said that there are now more than ...
-
Article
Fenix buys the leading Finnish outdoor retailer
The Fenix Outdoor group, which owns the Swedish Naturkompaniet retail chain of outdoor stores along with Fjällräven and several other brands, has extended its retail presence to Finland, where it fully acquired the Partioaitta chain last month.As part of the acquisition of Partioaitta, the Fenix Outdoor group has bagged this ...
-
Article
The Finnish market grew by 5.4% last year
Sporttimyyjä, the leading trade magazine for the sporting goods business in Finland, estimates that the market grew by 5.4 percent to €1,115.9 million in 2010. Kesko's Intersport and Kesport stores continued to lead the market with a combined turnover of €320.5 million, followed by Prisma with €128.0 million and Sportia ...
-
Article
Bids for Elan will end this week
Investors interested in acquiring Elan have until the end of this week to express their interest to PricewaterhouseCoopers, which was retained by Elan earlier this year to organize the sale of the Slovenian ski and nautical company. The company indicates that the cash-in element of the purchase price, in the ...
-
Article
Kneissl: to pay or not to pay, that’s the question
An Austrian court issued a ruling on June 3 that sees the bankrupt ski manufacturer get another chance to be rescued. The legendary Austrian sporting-goods company and its subsidiaries went into receivership in February after creditors, including a Vienna-based textile supplier, appealed for insolvency procedures at a point when Kneissl ...
-
Article
French pull out of Fedas
At its recent annual meeting in Rome, the members of Fedas, the European federation of sporting goods retailers, agreed to work more closely with Fesi, the European federation of the sporting goods industry. The two bodies will discuss the terms of their cooperation in the next few months, including the ...
-
Article
Intersport France has ambitious goals
The new management of the Intersport France group has laid out a new business plan intended to raise its market share from 13 to 20 percent in the next four years. In the mountain resorts, it wants to grow from 20 to 25 percent of the market, but the cooperative ...
-
Article
Intersport develops specialization in Switzerland
The Swiss licensee of the banner, Intersport PSC, has formed a unit of retail members who will commit to providing a comprehensive offer of outdoor products to their customers. Intersport supports them with a variety of marketing tools, for example with a custom-made flier that mainly promotes the individual shop. ...
