Latest Headlines – Page 438

  • Article

    Marie Valois Plans A Comeback

    2009-02-27T00:00:00Z

    Marie Valois, the French women’s golf apparel brand, has overhauled its business to deal with shrinking sales in the French golf market and in other European countries. It wants to broaden its range but move away from the European market. After several years of decline, Marie Valois was acquired ...

  • Article

    Maier Is Fit For The Future, But Puts Two Brands On Hold

    2009-02-27T00:00:00Z

    Maier Sports, the German apparel brand, believes it is prepared for the future after filing for insolvency under the German bankruptcy code in late 2008. Its operating business has been transferred to a new company that bears the name of the old one: Maier Sports GmbH & Co. KG. The ...

  • Article

    Winter Sports Boost Head's Operating Profit

    2009-02-27T00:00:00Z

    Despite a gain in sales and in operating profit, Head N.V. has reported a net loss for the fourth quarter that ended Dec. 31. The loss of €1.3 million compares with a profit of €700,000 for the same period in 2007. It comes even though sales grew by 5.4 percent ...

  • Article

    Puma Is Up In Sales, But Not In Orders Or Profits

    2009-02-27T00:00:00Z

    Puma is preparing for tougher times even though the figures through the end of 2008 have been relatively good. The company’s sales increased over the full year by 6.4 percent to €2.37 billion, and for the fourth quarter they were up by 11.3 percent to € 504.5 million. ...

  • Article

    Superga Boosts Basicnet’S 2008 Results And The Group Moves Into Virtual Pricing

    2009-02-27T00:00:00Z

    The full-year aggregated sales of BasicNet’s network of licensees rose by 10.8 percent to €305.5 million in 2008, lifted by a 40 percent jump in the sales of the group’s footwear brand Superga. The group’s other top apparel brands, Kappa and Robe di Kappa, booked a 7.5 percent increase, according ...

  • Article

    Accell Remained Strong In 2008

    2009-02-27T00:00:00Z

    Strong bicycle sales, a good product mix and the acquisition of Ghost helped Accell Group to obtain a 13 percent increase in sales to €538.0 million for 2008. Eight percent of this was organic. Net earnings grew by 17 percent to €28.6 million. ...

  • Article

    Brunswick’S Fitness Unit A Little Less Fit

    2009-02-27T00:00:00Z

    Sales in Brunswick Corporation’s fitness segment came out to be 2.2 percent less than the year before at $639.5 million, including $309 million in sales outside its home U.S. market.. Operating earnings for the segment fell by 12.6 percent to $52.2 million, ands the operating margin dropped by 0.9 percentage ...

  • Article

    Billabong Posts Strong Sales Growth, But Margins Suffer

    2009-02-27T00:00:00Z

    Billabong’s first-half net sales grew by 22.1 percent through last Dec. 31, helped some by healthy numbers in its home market of Australasia but even more by stronger gains in Europe and the Americas. Revenues increased to 808.6 million Australian dollars (€412.5m-$525.7m) for the year-ago first half as earnings ...

  • Article

    Restructuring Charges Impact Globe International

    2009-02-27T00:00:00Z

    Approximately 6.3 million Australian dollars (€3.21m-$4.10m) in one-time restructuring costs pushed Globe International further into the red for the six months ended Dec. 31. The net loss in the first half was A$9.34 million (€4.76m-$6.07m) compared with a profit of A$288,000, while sales dropped by 4.5 percent to A$60.6 million ...

  • Article

    Volcom Whacked By $16.2 Million Impairment

    2009-02-27T00:00:00Z

    Despite a modest 0.7 percent uptick in revenues to $69.6 million, Volcom suffered a net loss of $8.7 million for the final quarter ended Dec. 31 after taking a $14.8 million charge on its acquisition a year ago of Electric and another $1.4 million for the purchase of Laguna Surf ...

  • Article

    Mizuno Year-to-date Is A Net Loss

    2009-02-27T00:00:00Z

    The Japanese company’s sales were down by 5.3 percent to ¥123.2 billion (€983.0m-$1,256.3m) for the nine month ended last Dec. 31, and the gross margin dropped by 0.1 percentage point to 41.5 percent. The net result was a loss of ¥152 billion (€1212.8m-$1550.0m). In the same period last year, Mizuno ...

  • Article

    Crocs Has Huge Loss On Forex Losses, Margin Erosion

    2009-02-27T00:00:00Z

    The net loss was $33.2 million against income of $38.3 million for the final quarter ended Dec. 31 as sales plunged by 43.9 percent to $126.1 million. While that was higher than what analysts forecast (sales of $100 million to $120 million), it nonetheless closes out a disastrous year for ...

  • Article

    Skechers Says Profits Will Return In Second Half

    2009-02-27T00:00:00Z

    With the economy bearing down on its business in the U.S. and key international markets, Skechers will lean heavily on emerging markets such as Brazil and its three international joint ventures in China, Hong Kong and Malaysia/Thailand/Singapore to lift the brand’s fortunes in 2009. In the fourth quarter, Skechers ...

  • Article

    New Wave’S Sport & Leisure Segment Sees Big Drop

    2009-02-27T00:00:00Z

    New Wave Group, the Swedish parent of Cutter & Buck, reported a 94 percent drop in fourth-quarter operating profit for the fourth quarter to 61.6 million Swedish kronor (€8.26m-$10.6m). Sales fell by 7.9 percent to 1,226.5 million SEK (€108.3m-$138.5m). For the full fiscal year, total group sales increased ...

  • Article

    Deckers' Gains Driven By Strong Ugg Sales

    2009-02-27T00:00:00Z

    Deckers plans to make aggressive investments in UGG, Simple and Tsubo in an effort to gain market share in 2009 after closing out a record year with fourth-quarter net income of $40.5 million compared with $35.4 million from the year before. Sales jumped by 56.3 percent to $303.5 million. For ...

  • Article

    Wolverine Is Consolidating European Operations

    2009-02-27T00:00:00Z

    The Wolverine World Wide group has put forward a plan to centralize its European back-office functions in London and Paris, entailing the closure of offices in the Netherlands and Germany. Customer service and credit control for the Benelux countries, Germany and Austria are to be phased out and moved to ...

  • Article

    Capo Puts New Management At The Top

    2009-02-27T00:00:00Z

    Capo, the Austrian specialty headwear brand, has appointed a new managing director. Otmar Kräutler, the new chief, had been sales director; he’s been with the brand since June 2008. Before, Kräutler was with various textile manufacturers from within and outside the sporting goods business for more than three decades, including ...

  • Article

    China’S Ski Boom Seems To Be Slowing

    2009-02-27T00:00:00Z

    After several years of growth, the Chinese ski market has flattened due to the lack of new resorts and regular skiers. Suppliers at the Ispo China fair in Beijing estimated that the market for branded skis to consumers reached no more than 10,000 pairs this season, and the same could ...

  • Article

    Ispo Provides A Good Look At Chinese Industry

    2009-02-27T00:00:00Z

    Regardless of the expected slowdown in the growth of the Chinese sports market this year, interest in the country’s outdoor and winter sports business continued to thrive, as witnessed at the Ispo China fair in Beijing earlier this month. About 13,500 visitors attended the fifth edition of Ispo ...

  • Article

    New Leaders For World Group

    2009-02-27T00:00:00Z

    The World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry has elected the chief executives of Pentland Brands, Andrew Rubin, and Under Armour, Kevin Plank, to be new members of its board. In addition, the WFSGI named Stephen Rubin, who has been active in the group for many years and has served ...