Latest Headlines – Page 500
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Asian Outdoor Fair Had Mixed Results
A total of 6,743 registered trade visitors attended Asia OutDoor, the new Chinese trade show organized by Messe Friedrichshafen in Nanjing on Aug. 23-26. The show started off with an ominous thunderstorm, and the attendance level was lower than the 10,000 visitors anticipated by the organizers, with 86 percent of ...
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The Athlete’S Foot Is Sold Again
The international U.S.-based franchisor of athletic footwear stores is being acquired by Aether Holdings, which will change its name to NexCen Brands Inc. to mark a switch in focus from mortgage-based securities to the acquisition of intellectual properties. The purchase marks the third time that The Athlete’s Foot (TAF) has ...
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Foot Locker Boosts “Fusion” Product Mix To Remedy Europe, Revises Guidance
Fusion footwear – a phrase commonly used now to define low-profile sports-inspired lifestyle footwear - has come to represent 40 percent of the total product mix in Foot Locker’s European outlets, as compared to 15 percent last year. The American retail chain wants to push the European ratio further up ...
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Twinner Will Purchase Together With Intersport In France
SED, the battered French buying group whose retail members trade under the Twinner, Techniciens du Sport and Véloland banners, has signed an agreement in principle to pool its purchasing operations with those of Intersport France. It is not yet sure who is going to handle the group’s centralized invoicing and ...
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New Problems Beset Karstadt
Karstadt-Quelle has fired managers of four of its 32 Karstadt Sport superstores, charging that they had arranged excess prices and bribes with certain suppliers for products not sourced through the central buying apparatus of Karstadt Sport for the sporting goods sections of their stores. The managers, who work at the ...
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Jjb Sees Sales Rise And Margins Drop
JJB Sports, the British sports retailer, is blaming “predatory” pricing on England replica shirts for a drop of 2.8 percentage points in the gross margins of its retail outlets for the 25 weeks ended on July 23. Although the company’s sales of football shirts around the World Cup were in ...
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While Reporting Poor Sales, Blacks Licenses Mambo For Europe And Works With Evans Cycles In The Uk
The 5-year licensing agreement excludes Spain but covers all other wholesale and retail activities for Mambo throughout Europe. Blacks Leisure Group, which already operates numerous O’Neill stores in the UK, will take over Mambo’s existing four outlets in the country as part of the deal. Rob Pascoe, who had ...
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Billabong Makes Big Progress Almost Everywhere
For its full year ended June 30, Billabong International’s revenues climbed by 21 percent to 1,027,832,000 Australian dollars (€616.4m-US$782.8m), marking the first time the company has surpassed the billion mark in its local currency. Net income rose by 16 percent to A$145,659,000 (€87.3m-US$110.9m). Thanks to a strong 2nd half, ...
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Stockmann Will Open Nike Stores In Russia, Joining Many Other Partners
Stockmann, a large Finnish retail group known mainly for its department stores, has signed a deal to open and operate many new Nike concept stores in Russia over the next five years as part of a broader expansion program in that fast-growing market. Stockmann is planning to start up between ...
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K-swiss Hires Alden Sheets For Apparel
Alden Sheets, the American apparel guru who successfully developed Puma’s business in this sector over the last few years, after doing a similar job at Fila, has been hired by K-Swiss to act as global president of apparel. The goal is to build up a more comprehensive offering of textile ...
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Exel Trims Its Sports Division
Exel’s sports division has decided to lay off about 20 employees, mainly outside Finland, to adjust its sales, distribution and marketing costs to the difficult market situation created by high retailers’ inventories of Nordic walking poles in Central Europe. The Finnish company will concentrate its involvement in consumer products on ...
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Some German Football Players Resent Adidas’ Domination
Adidas is taking flak from some German football players who are refusing to wear the boots of their sponsor. In nearly all other countries players have the right to choose the brand of their footwear when they play for the national team, regardless of their sponsor, but in Germany the ...
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The Mega-brands Turn Their Eyes Onto China
Since the football World Cup is over all eyes are turning to China, a fast-growing market that will host the next Olympic Games in Beijing. The market’s size was recently estimated at about $3 billion, and whatever its actual size, it is generally expected to triple by 2010. Mark ...
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Salewa Has Ambitious Goals For Its Boots
Eyeing place #4 in Europe’s crowded outdoor footwear market, Salewa would like to reach annual sales of 400,000 pairs worth about €30 million in a few years’ time with its new footwear range, which was prominently launched at the OutDoor show in Friedrichshafen last month. Salewa invested heavily in ...
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Dare2be Moves European Office To France
Dare2be, the winter sports brand belonging to Regatta, is shifting its European head office from Manchester to Annecy in France. The office will be headed by Gérard Barin, who joined Regatta in June in the new position of brand manager for Dare2be after several decades in French sports retailing and ...
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Growing Vaude Reorganizes After The Purchase Of Edelrid
VauDe, the German outdoor company, is continuing its integration of Edelrid, the climbing brand it acquired last year. The two companies insist that Edelrid and VauDe will retain their separate management, German locations and production but the tie-up will be felt more strongly by foreign distributors and secondary brands. ...
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Orange 21 Posts Another Loss, Signs Up Spy Distributors
The net loss was about $758,000 in the 2nd quarter for the parent company of Spy Optic, as compared to a net income of $362,000 in the last year’s quarter. However the loss was narrowed by about $1million when compared to the 1st quarter of this year. Turnover slid by ...
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Young Crocs Continues To Snowball
Sales outside of the USA for Crocs were only expected to be 10 percent of total revenues, but ended up representing 30 percent by the end of the 2nd quarter and are expected to stay at this level through the end of the year. The company now sells its odd-looking ...
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Aktiesport Buys Perry Sport, Forming New Dutch Retail Leader
Perry Sport, the leading Dutch sports retailer, is to be acquired by Unlimited Sports Group (USG), a company that already owns Aktiesport, a much more aggressive Dutch banner, and several licenses. The new owners have ambitious expansion goals although the two retailers jointly cover a large swathe of the Dutch ...
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Adidas Reports Solid Quarterly Gains, Continues To Integrate Reebok
Exactly one month after the final of the football World Cup, the excitement of the competition is still reverberating in Adidas’ quarterly results. Buoyant sales of balls and jerseys strongly contributed to a 13 percent jump in the European sales of three-striped products for the second quarter, despite the roughness ...
