Latest Headlines – Page 495
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Sports World Buys Kangol, Introduces The Sportsdirect.Com Store Format
Mike Ashley continues to acquire brands, not only retail operations. Acting through International Brand Management Ltd. (IBML), a subsidiary of Sports World grouping all his wholesale properties, he has acquired Kangol, a well-known brand of headwear with lots of licenses for other products. He is reportedly paying £10 million (€14m-$19m) ...
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Lotto Acquires Etonic
Lotto Sport Italia has signed a deal to acquire Etonic at a price close to the turnover that it will generate this year. This former property of Spalding, whose product range is quite complementary to that of the Italian company, expects to raise its revenues to €30 million this year ...
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Gjelsten Buys Sport 1 In Norway
Bjørn Rune Gjelsten, a wealthy Norwegian sports enthusiast, is moving back into the sporting goods business with the acquisition of an 80 percent stake in Sport 1 from its retail members through a combination of cash and new shares. Sport 1 is one of the two major buying groups that ...
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With Europe Bearing Less Fruit, Foot Locker Turns To Brown Shoes In Usa
In the past Foot Locker had been opening 50 new retail stores a year in Europe, but in the near future the company plans to open just 6-8 annually. The capital that the American retailer would have spent in Europe is being invested into a new retail concept, a low-to-mid ...
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New Athlete’S Foot Owner Maps Out Plans
The new parent of The Athlete’s Foot (TAF), NexCen Brands, wants to grow the American athletic footwear chain to more than 700 doors by the end of next year, including 420 stores outside of the USA. At the end of 2006, TAF will have 390 stores outside of the USA ...
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Karstadt Restructures Mail Order Operations After A Bad Quarter
Karstadt-Quelle will keep and develop certain parts of its largest mail order business, Quelle, while stopping its operations in Belgium and the Netherlands at the beginning of 2007 and selling those it has in France, Portugal and Spain. It will also dispose of some of its 18 specialty mail order ...
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Cerberus May Want To Cash Out Of Fila
Cerberus Capital Management, which acquired Fila Sport in mid-2003 for $351 million including assumption of debt, has reportedly signed up Goldman Sachs and a Rothschild company to make a valuation of Fila and of its holding company, Sport Brands International, in view of their possible sale. According to a report ...
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Arena Will Close Its French Factory
Arena Technologies Development & Production (Arena TDP), a subsidiary of the Arena Group that manufactures almost 60 percent of the elastic swimwear products with the help of Tunisian subcontractors, is expected to close its doors by next March. The company, which fell under the control of a new institutional investor ...
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Accell Acquires Another Fitness Firm
Accell, the growing Dutch-based cycling and fitness equipment group, has acquired Webena, a Dutch specialist in small fitness accessories to complement its own range of larger fitness equipment, sold under such brands as Tunturi and Bremshey. Webena gets an annual turnover of roughly €3.5 million from the sale of more ...
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Icon Reshuffles Its European Team
Icon Health & Fitness disagrees with Accell Group’s claim that the latter has become the second-largest supplier of home fitness equipment on the European market after Kettler, racing past the American group. Icon’s European management says the company is set to reach sales of €73-74 million in the four European ...
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Admiral Returns To The British Sporting Goods Retail Market
International Brand Licensing (IBL), which inherited the rights to this venerable British team sports brand from the late Lance Yates, has signed a licensing deal with Sondico for team sports clothing and equipment to be sold in sporting goods stores in the UK and Ireland, starting next Spring. Sondico, which ...
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Body Glove Finds A New European Licensee
After several disappointments, the European license for Body Glove has been picked up by Pro Sports Club, a fast-moving Dutch sports retailer and supplier. The company obtained a European license for apparel, footwear and textile-related accessories bearing the Californian surf brand earlier this year, and it has started to build ...
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Basicnet Swings Into A Loss For The Quarter
BasicNet booked a net loss in the third quarter, as the company was bogged down by higher production and general costs. Net revenues were virtually flat at €20.66 million compared with €20.53 million for the same period a year ago, while production costs rose to €13.99 million from €12.04 million. ...
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Fenix Outdoor Continues To Generate Better Results
Represented by its Naturkompaniet stores, the retail operations of the Swedish group are performing particularly well, with a 23 percent increase in comparable store sales during the 3rd quarter in spite of mild weather conditions. Attributing the continuously positive score to a deeper and broader assortment and to good investments ...
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Eddie Bauer Finds Buyers After Reporting Significant Losses
In a deal valued at $614 million, Eddie Bauer will be bought by Golden Gate Capital Partners and affiliates of Sun Capital Partners. Repayments of $328 million in debt and $286 million in cash are included in the acquisition, which is expected to be completed in the 1st quarter of ...
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Eu Enlargement Helps Diverters
The enlargement of the European Union makes it easier for sporting goods brands to find their way into such countries as Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary, but it also makes it easier for discount supermarket chains that usually have no access to branded products to satisfy their needs in ...
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Two British Buying Groups Amalgamate...
The Sports Traders Alliance Group (STAG) is going back to its roots by merging with another British buying group, Sports & Leisure UK (S&LUK), which will cease to exist by the end of this year. The merger will create a bigger buying group with about 400 retail members and 570 ...
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Sport 2000 Woes German Members With New Efficiency Program
A buying group is not only meant to offer better purchasing conditions and access to exclusive products, or as a marketing tool around an easily recognizable banner. The German Sport 2000 group is now proposing to its members to devote more of their time to the job of selling the ...
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Adidas Pushes The Reebok Brand To Offset A Delay In Its Turnaround
The Adidas brand scored relatively well in the 3rd quarter, but the Reebok brand performed disappointingly, dragging down the group’s overall results and leading to group to forecast an increase of only about 15 percent in next year’s net profit, down from a previously anticipated 20 percent increase.The previously set ...
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Drop In Puma’S Net Is Lower Than Expected
Puma is taking numerous new initiatives to help sustain its growth, which is flattening out now in the USA as well as in Europe. Profit margins were higher than expected in the 3rd quarter, however, leading to a drop in net income of only 5.2 percent to €87.1 million in ...
