Latest Headlines – Page 411
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Metro Reorganizes To Better Expand Globally, Enters Kazakhstan
Metro Cash & Carry, which is a major player in the sporting goods market of many emerging markets, is getting a new corporate structure. Its operations will be divided into Europe/Middle East/North Africa (Europe/MENA) and Asia/New Markets. Joël Saveuse will be in charge of Europe/MENA, and Frans Muller will oversee ...
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Batra Establishes Fila India
The Indian-based Batra Group, which took over the rights to the Fila brand for Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Indian subcontinent two years ago, has formally launched Fila in India. Batra, which also has a big office in London taking care of other sports brands, was Fila’s distributor ...
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India’S Planet Sports Chain Grows Rapidly
Modern multi-brand sports retailing appears to be shaping up in India, with the expansion of several specialist store formats. Among the most convincing concepts is that of Planet Sports, which turned into a hard-hitting specialist chain with 45 stores at the end of March this year, up from 34 stores ...
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Outdoor Group Again Leads Wolverine’S Good Results, Outlook Improves
Wolverine World Wide has reported that its revenues grew by 11.6 percent to $284.9 million in the first quarter of 2010, including a 3.6 percent gain from foreign exchange. Adjusted for restructuring and related charges in both years, gross margin in the quarter grew by 0.4 percentage points to 41.6 ...
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K-swiss Has A New Plan To Rebound
K-Swiss launched a 10-year strategic plan at the beginning of this year to assert itself as a Californian sports brand with a much higher emphasis on performance. This comes after several years of decline, which have seen the brand’s sales shrink from nearly $500 million in 2005 to about $241 ...
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Prince Gets More Equity For Expansion
Prince Sports Management Holdings has completed the sale of $11.67 million worth of new shares as part of a refinancing program designed to reduce some of its debts and to finance new initiatives such as the previously reported start-up of a sales subsidiary in France and the development of the ...
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New Chief And A New Development Phase For Briko
Carlo Bortoli, the Italian entrepreneur from the wine and publishing industries who took over this brand of snow sports and cycling products two years ago, has appointed Gianluca Pellegrinelli to replace him as chief executive, while remaining as an “active” chairman of the company. A well-known personality of the Italian ...
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Sports Shoes Fell By 4.0% In The U.S. In 2009
The market for athletic shoes in the U.S. dropped by 4.0 percent to $11,957 million in terms of invoiced sales by the major brands, after a 0.6 percent drop in 2008. Weak retail sales combined with aggressive inventory management by retailers and a few major bankruptcies all combined to make ...
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Taiwan’S Bike Exports Suffer
Last year was a disappointing one for Taiwanese bicycle producers, as exports by volume dropped a full 20 percent compared with the figure from 2008. The country exported 4.32 million bikes in 2009. It had a smaller drop by value, which fell by 10 percent to $1,249.7 million. The ...
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PHYSIOLOGICAL FOOTWEAR is booming IN THE U.S. AND coming to EUROPE
Americans call this category toning footwear, and while these unstable shoes have been around for a long time, they have become the buzz of the moment in the U.S. market, especially among women. New Balance is the latest big player in the athletic footwear market to have jumped on the ...
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Mbt Hopes To Benefit From The Expansion Of The Toning Shoe Market
“MBT congratulates the other brands that join our revolution,” says an advertisement that has been running in some trade publications over the last few weeks. Officials of the Swiss firm are in fact convinced that the entry of heavyweights such as Skechers and Reebok into the category can only benefit ...
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Mbt’S Founder Explores New Horizons
Karl Müller, the Swiss mechanical engineer who launched Masai Barefoot Technology (MBT) in 1996 and sold it 10 years later to an American investment fund, is about to launch a totally new footwear concept under the umbrella of his holding company, Karl Müller Science Footwear. He declined to elaborate. ...
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China Insists On Wto Anti-dumping Probe, May Raise The Yuan
Insistent reports indicate that the Chinese government may decide to revalue the national currency, bowing to strong pressure from the U.S.. While most sourcing deals are labeled in U.S. dollars, such a move could lead to higher prices for the numerous kinds of sports products imported from China, aggravating the ...
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Sports Direct Is Not Bidding For Blacks
Sports Direct International (SDI), the British sports wholesale and retail group, has said that it would not issue any firm offer for Blacks Leisure Group, its rival in the outdoor market, due to uncertainty about the willingness of key suppliers to continue to deliver to Blacks under SDI’s ownership. The ...
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Stag Continues To Grow
In contrast with the bleak British economy, STAG is alive and kicking. The growing British buying group reports an increase in the retail members’ turnover to £240 million (€272.0m-$369.5m) after VAT for the year ended last Jan. 31, compared with £215 million in the previous financial year, although some of ...
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Another Drop For The French Market
After a 0.5 percent drop in 2008, the French sporting goods market again fell by 0.5 percent in 2009, according to FPS, the French sporting goods retailers’ association, which estimates its size at €9.11 million, including bicycles. The drop is attributed to the poor economic situation as well as to ...
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Intersport Gains Market Share In France
The turnover of the retailers affiliated with the French Intersport group increased by 2.12 percent to €1,131 million last year, with slight increases on a same-store basis of 0.4 percent for those operating in the mountains and 1.32 percent for the others. With a total of 349 stores and ...
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Usg Acquires Tenson
After hectic negotiations, Tenson was acquired last week by the shareholders of Unlimited Sports Group (USG), the Dutch sports wholesale and retail behemoth. The company wants to bring Tenson back to growth after several years of decline, which reduced its sales to about €10 million, mostly in Scandinavia and the ...
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Major Turnaround For Swix
After several years of losses, Swix managed to post a small profit in 2008 and a bigger one in 2009, thanks to a series of strategic moves intended to improve operational efficiencies and to improve the Norwegian company’s position in the international market, with a strong bent for innovation. ...
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Le Coq And Boards & More Turn Around
After several years of heavy investments, Le Coq Sportif, the French sports brand, returned to profit in 2009. It ended the year with sales up by about 19 percent to nearly €83.5 million, and a net profit of about €2.7 million, compared with a loss of some €5.4 million the ...
