Latest Headlines – Page 466
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Body Glove Wetsuits Expected To Give Boost To Pro Sports Club
Pro Sports Club, the Dutch company that took over the European license for Body Glove footwear and apparel two years ago, is expected to considerably expand its distribution of the Californian surfing brand after obtaining the license to sell Body Glove wetsuits in continental Europe starting this year. The license ...
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Icebug Grows With Its Web-bug
Icebug, a Swedish company that is beginning to make its mark with its special footwear to walk on ice and snow, has won the “gear of the year 2007” award from a reputed Swedish sport magazine, Sportfack for an innovative product, the “web-bug.” The rubber web, set with metal crampons, ...
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Sympatex Wins An Award And Sees Changes In Management
Sympatex Technologies won the ISPO European Ski Award for the second year running, with its “Eco-Blue” fully recyclable ski jacket. The Sympatex laminate is made from polyester-polyether copolymer, which consists of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, and is reportedly entirely recyclable. The prize may help the brand to gain notoriety outside ...
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Outdry Wins An Award, Too
The brothers Luca and Theo Morlacchi have taken home the Volvo EcoDesign Award at the recent ISPO Winter sports fair with their OutDry concept, which they are positioning as a serious alternative to Gore-Tex or Sympatex and other breathable membranes that have a more established presence in the market. They ...
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The Winter Ispo Was Great But The Outdoor Industry Prefers Friedrichshafen In Summer
The ISPO Winter show ended in Munich last Wednesday was a resounding success. The number of exhibitors grew to encompass a record of 2,026 companies and many that did not have a stand sent over executives for meetings and trend scouting. Attendance was more or less stable, matching last year’s ...
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Trespass Buys Nevisport
Nevisport, the Scottish-based outdoor retailer, will be able to expand rapidly over the next years following its acquisition by the owners of Trespass late last year. Afzal and Akmal Kushi, the brothers who are behind this Scottish brand of outdoor and winter sports clothing, estimate that there is space for ...
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New Md For Stadium
Gustaf Öhrn will replace Ulf Eklöf as the new group president of Stadium as of Apr. 1. One of his primary tasks will be to look at ways of increasing the profitability of the leading Swedish sporting goods retail chain after heavy investments in the past few years. He is ...
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New Management For Rossignol
David Morgan, the 48-year-old chief executive of Quiksilver, was appointed last Friday as chief executive of the Rossignol Group, replacing Jean-François Gautier. A former financial executive of L’Oréal who worked there at the same time as Bernard Mariette, current president of Quiksilver, he joined him at the American company two ...
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New Core Shareholder For Amer
After a sharp drop in its share price early last month, Amer Sports has attracted a new investor and seen the return of a more familiar shareholder. Novator Finland Oy, the Finnish arm of a UK-based investment fund launched by Thor Björgolfsson, an Icelandic billionaire businessman, bought forward contracts for ...
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Elan Is Considering Acquisitions
Elan, the Slovenian ski company, is eyeing acquisitions, most likely in areas that are not related to winter sports, in contrast with a certain French press report. The Slovenian government, which indirectly holds a majority of Elan’s shares, was said last year to be seeking to exit the company before ...
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Big Plunge In The Cross-country Ski Market Hits Fischer
Fischer is predicting a drop of 50 percent in sales of cross-country skis to the trade during the current season, after an estimated 37 percent drop to around 1.2 million pairs during the Winter 2006/07 season. This includes only the top portion of the big Russian market, estimated at ...
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Nike Has Umbro In The Pocket
Only regulatory approvals still stand in the way of Umbro’s acquisition by Nike, after an overwhelming majority of the English company’s shareholders approved the deal at an extraordinary meeting held earlier this week. The outcome of the vote was almost certain after Sports Direct International (SDI) and JJB Sports, two ...
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Mixed Results For German Buying Groups
Germany’s two largest buying groups both saw their sales dwindle last year due to the downturn of the winter sports business. Members of Intersport Germany lifted their retail sales by 2 percent in the second half, but this was not enough to offset a slide of 5 percent in the ...
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Arcandor Makes A Slim Profit Margin
Arcandor, the German group formerly called Karstadt-Quelle, reported a net profit of €16 million after minority interests for the short new financial year from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30, 2007, thanks exclusively to the results of its tourism subsidiary, Thomas Cook, which delivered operating earnings before amortization and depreciation (EBITDA) ...
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Flat Market In Europe And A Decline In Germany, But The Outlook Is Positive
The European sporting goods market was more or less flat in 2007, according to FEDAS, the European sporting goods retailers’ federation, based essentially on input from the member organizations in Austria, France, Germany, Italy. It estimates the size of the market at about €37 billion at retail, but we feel ...
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The World Federation Embarks On A Novel Course
The World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry has won new members through the announcement of various new programs and initiatives such as intellectual property protection, labelling and e-commerce. One of the key words is “best practice." It will be used by a new Federations Committee chaired by Tom ...
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Columbia Inches Up
Columbia Sportswear Company made a net income of $45,720,000, up from $38,387,000, during the 4th quarter ended on Dec. 31, 2007. Sales increased by 4 percent to $376,758,000, but the weak dollar was responsible for 3 percentage points of the increase and the operating margin declined from 15.4 percent to ...
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Amer Consolidates Its Ski Production
Outstanding snow conditions so far during the winter season have done little to appease worries about the prospects of the global ski business as Amer Sports, the owner of Salomon and Atomic, unveiled a new reorganization plan for its alpine ski business involving about 400 job cuts over the next ...
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Quiksilver Doesn’T Exclude The Sale Of Rossignol Anymore
While warning investors that its results for the current quarter will be worse than expected, Quiksilver said last week that it has mandated JP Morgan to review the opportunity of selling off any of the components of its sports equipment sector. The company will also reduce its expenses and its ...
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Volcom Acquires Electric Visual
Joining the other major surf & skate brands, Volcom has taken over a sunglass specialist to complement its collection. It’s Electric Visual Evolution, a supplier of sunglasses and snow goggles founded by Kip Arnette and Bruce Beach in 2000. Based in San Clemente, California, it has offices also in Hossegor, ...
