Latest Headlines – Page 459
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Heelys Takes Over Some European Distribution
A new subsidiary of Heelys, Heeling Sports France, is going to take over distribution of Heelys shoes in France, Monaco and Andorra from a distributor, Trotwood Import/Export. Based in Annecy, France, the new subsidiary will be run by a sporting goods industry veteran, Serge Darcy, who has worked in leading ...
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Margins Tumble At Crocs
Crocs has reported a net loss of $4,527,000 for the first quarter ended March 31, compared with net profit of $24,945,000 in the same period of the previous year, and an operating loss of $6,404,000 compared with an operating profit of $37,158,000. The company said it would have posted a ...
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European Skateboards Roll Into The Usa
Jart Skateboards, one of the few European manufacturers of skateboards, recently opened a U.S. subsidiary in Los Angeles, which will be operational by the summer. It wants to introduce its own brand, called Jart – or crazy in Spanish slang – to the U.S. market where up to 60 percent ...
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Yue Yuen Spins Off Retail Operations
Yue Yuen, the world’s largest contract manufacturer of branded footwear, has started the process of spinning off its retail operations, grouped since last November into a separate subsidiary, Pou Sheng, which will also be the exclusive distributor of Converse in China from 2009 on. The subsidiary has been listed on ...
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Kelme Gets New Lease On Life
The Quiles brothers, who founded Kelme in 1977, have given up on the ownership of the popular Spanish sports footwear brand after more than a year of negotiations, ending up in a session of 27 hours in the office of a notary public to draft and sign the final contracts. ...
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Tuckland Closes Shop
The present manufacturing unit for Tuckland’s outdoor footwear in Tefalla, Spain, is to close down, and Tuckland Footwear will cease its activities after the regional investment company that owns it declared that the business is no longer viable. Rather than die out, the Tuckland brand may be bought up by ...
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Exel Sells Pole Division To Karhu
After considerable losses in the past few years, due to competition and production problems following a shift in manufacturing from Finland to China, Exel Oy has decided to sell its outdoor business to another Finnish company, Karhu Sports. Karhu will take over the company’s pole business, consisting of its cross-country ...
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One Way Sport Launches Footwear
Exel’s main challenger in Nordic Walking poles, One Way Sport of Finland, is launching a new technical line of shoes and boots with a Nordic look for the Spring/Summer 2009 season. The new project will be led by Matthias Faller, a German-based sales and marketing executive who spent the last ...
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F2 Goes Into Insolvency
F2 International, the Austrian windsurfing and snowboarding brand, has filed for bankruptcy proceedings at a court in Salzburg just one year after it was acquired by Gerald Pascher. The insolvency documents indicate that F2 has accumulated debts of about €5.8 million, while its assets are worth just €791,000. The ...
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Dongxiang Buys Phenix
Dongxiang Group, the Chinese company that bought the rights to the Kappa brand name for China and Macau in May 2006, is acquiring a stake of 91 percent in a new company that will own Phenix Co., the major Japanese skiwear producer and retailer, for a symbolic amount of 2 ...
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Decathlon Creates A Footwear Development Hub
Décathlon, whose parent company is now called Oxylane, loves to invent new names. Two years ago it created the name EssenSole, a contraction of Essential Sole, for special footwear products sold in its stores and for a business unit grouping all the company’s research, product development, design, purchasing and training ...
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Sport Schuster Records Big Growth
Sport Schuster, the old large-scale sports store in the heart of Munich, disclosed a turnover of more than €40 million for 2007, after a major face-lift. This means an increase by 15 percent compared with 2004. The figure cannot be compared with the previous two years as the main store ...
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Otto Grows Mainly Outside Germany
Otto Group, which claims to be the world’s second-largest online retailer and parent company of Sport-Scheck, increased its sales by 2.5 percent to €11,530 million in the fiscal year ended last Feb. 29. In a preliminary statement, the Hamburg-based retail group pointed out that substantial growth outside Germany was the ...
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Athleticum And Ochsner Push Online Sales On The Eve Of Euro 2008
Athleticum and Ochsner, two of the leading sports retail chains in Switzerland, have most recently turned to the internet to sell their products. The almost simultaneous launch of the two sites was not random. Switzerland is in the final countdown to the UEFA Euro 2008 football cup, which it is ...
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Currency Valuations Have A Major Impact On Amer Sports
The falling U.S. dollar and the uncertain American economy have hurt Amer Sports, which reported a 4.9 percent decline in consolidated net sales to €363.0 million in the first quarter; in local currencies, it would have been a 2 percent sales increase. The bottom line improved, ending up in a ...
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New Management Changes At Quiksilver And Rossignol
No word yet about the possible sale of Rossignol Group or its hardgoods division. Meanwhile, the structure of Rossignol’s management has further evolved, giving a stronger identity to each brand on the marketing side. Bernard Liatti has been promoted as senior vice president, reporting to the company’s recently appointed chief ...
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New Wave Creates A Sports Division
New Wave Group, a Swedish group that has become a respectable owner, distributor and licensee of various sports brands in the last few years, is gearing up for the launch of a full-fledged sports division at the beginning of July. The combined sales of sports products under this new unit, ...
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Outdoor Coalition Leads Vf In Quarter
VF Corporation’s revenues for the period ended March 31 climbed by 10.8 percent to $1.85 billion, and net income grew by 11.1 percent to $149 million. Acquisitions contributed revenues of $141 million. The weak dollar boosted the turnover by $56 million and the bottom line by 6.8 percentage points. ...
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Columbia Reports A Bad Quarter, Realigns Its Product Range In Europe
Columbia Sportswear reported that a disappointing drop in net profit of 23.6 percent to $19,931,000 while its sales increased by 2.7 percent to $297.4 million during the first quarter ended March 31. Sales would have actually fallen by more than 2 percent if currency exchange rates had remained the same. ...
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Fenix Outdoor Grows Despite Late Deliveries
The Swedish outdoor group reported a 4 percent increase in net profit to 31 million Swedish kronor (€3.3m-$5.1m) for the first quarter of 2008, on 6 percent higher net sales of 222.8 million SEK (€23.8m-$36.8m). The pre-tax profit remained flat at 29.9 million SEK (€3.2m-$4.9m), but would have risen by ...
