Latest Headlines – Page 504
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Oxbow Helps Improve Lafuma’S Results
The management of the French outdoor group, which acquired Oxbow last year, is fairly confident of raising the French surf brand’s operating margin (EBIT) from 9 to 12 percent this year, while boosting its revenues by between 5 and 7 percent, after three years of quasi-stagnation. The longterm potential is ...
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Rip Curl Looks For New Avenues Of Growth In Europe
Rip Curl is taking some important product initiatives while going through some management changes in its European operations. Denis Holtzwarth, a former Procter & Gamble executive who worked recently for Reebok and Oxbow, has been appointed as the new commercial director of Rip Curl Europe, replacing Stéphane Weinhold who recently ...
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Animal Opens More Stores Everywhere
Animal, the British action sports brand, is multiplying store openings in the UK and in several other European countries, while expanding its wholesale business through the launch of a secondary brand, Elements, described as a transition range. Elements has just been launched in Animal’s own stores and it should be ...
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Extreme Group Fires On All Cylinders
The UK-based extreme sports group of Al Gosling is bursting with new initiatives at home and abroad, banking on its growing reputation in the action sports sector. It has recently signed a flurry of international licensing deals to sell action sports clothing, footwear and accessories under the Extreme brand, and ...
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Russell’S Sale Is Approved
U.S. anti-trust authorities have allowed Berkshire Hathaway to take over Russell Corp. in spite of its ownership of Fruit of the Loom, whose business is somewhat similar to that of Russell in certain areas. Documents filed with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission show that Berkshire’s offer was accepted by ...
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K-swiss Looks At Apparel
K-Swiss is considering the development of an in-house fashion apparel business to help turn around in the U.S. market, while banking on sales in Europe to continue to drive its overall growth. It has its sights set on expanding to Italy and Spain, but it’s not clear how it will ...
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Mizuno Sells Many Football And Running Shoes In Europe
Mizuno is making a certain statement in several European markets with its football and running shoes, offering good technology at a relatively reasonable price. Its footwear sales in Europe have been growing at an annual rate of about 25 percent over the last few years. Combined with sports bags and ...
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Ispo Launches A Road Show In Germany
A crew of youngsters representing the ISPO show will visit some 3,000 German sporting goods retailers over a 3-week period next month, using a fleet of 30 cars placed at their disposal by Volvo, to persuade them to come over to the fair next July 16-18 and to tell them ...
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New Italian Fair On The Horizon
Sport Italy is the name chosen for a proposed new B-to-B winter and outdoor sports exhibition to be held in Bolzano near the Austrian border next Feb. 18-20. Assosport, the Italian sports industry association, has given its full support to the new event, hoping that it will be more readily ...
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Two Dutch Buying Groups Outperform The Market
We have already reported on the progress of Fairplay in Holland. In spite of a depressed market sporting goods market, which dropped by an estimated 4 percent last year, Intersport Nederland saw its sales decline by only 1.3 percent in 2005, while Euretco Sport, which federates Sport 2000 stores in ...
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Deichmann Claims The Leadership In The Swiss Sporting Goods Market
Previous estimates placed Dosenbach-Ochsner more or less on a par in the Swiss sporting goods market with the Manor Group of department stores, including its Athleticum specialty chain, and with the Migros cooperative, which has its own Sport XX stores. Dosenbach-Ochsner, the Swiss subsidiary of the giant German Deichmann shoe ...
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Karstadt Assigns Sourcing To Li & Fung
Confirming press speculation, Li & Fung, the leading trading company based in Hong Kong, has signed a letter of intent to handle the international buying for the private brands of Karstadt-Quelle, the German retail group, replacing its in-house operations and many intermediaries. The takeover will affect about 1,100 people in ...
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Athletic Giant Teams Up With Technology Bohemoth
Nike and Apple are collaborating to feed consumers the Nike+iPod Sport kit, a wireless system that connects Apple’s iPod Nano music player to a special new line of Nike+ footwear that can be fitted with a special micro-chip on demand. The kit will be available in the USA and the ...
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Fenix Outdoor Makes Good Profit
Skandinavisk Høyfjellsutstyr, a Norwegian chain of outdoor shops, is the only operation of the Swedish group that was still in red during the 1st quarter of 2006, due especially to high rents. Instead Naturkompaniet, the Swedish retail chain of Fenix Outdoor, continued to improve its profitability, thanks in part to ...
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Asics Leads Japan’S Athletic Brands
ASICS solidified its position as the no.1 sports brand in Japan in its full year, ended March 31, as turnover rose by 17 percent to 171.04 billion yen (€1,191m-$1,520m), but domestic sales were up by just 2 percent to 78.96 billion yen (€550m-$702m). The big sales increases came from Europe ...
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Under Armour Grows Margin Thanks To Sourcing Shift
Under Armour, the young new firm that began as a seller of underwear for American football, continued to register strong growth in the 1st quarter as its net income jumped by 248 percent to $8,734,000 on 50.7 percent higher revenues of $87.7 million. The company narrowed its operating expenses by ...
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Foot Locker’S Big Concern Is Europe And Its New Opportunity Is The Middle East
While Europe continues to be like quick sand for Foot Locker, the American retailer has undertaken a franchising business in the Middle East that will start off with outlets in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait during the 2nd quarter. Foot Locker’s objective is to open 75 franchised in the Middle East ...
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Fila Launches Customized Shoes
While it is still owned by Cerberus, the large American investment fund, and managed by Steve Wynne out of the USA, Fila is trying to make a comeback with an Italian image in order to make a difference with the big global brands, capitalizing on strong style and innovation contents. ...
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The Big A Shortens Its Name Again
Shareholders of Adidas-Salomon have voted to change the official name of the company back to Adidas AG. The company sold Salomon for about €485 million to Amer Sports last October. In a separate move, the company’s shareholders approved a four-to-one stock split, with the intention of making Adidas’ stock – ...
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Adidas Doesn’T Want To Downsize At Wimbledon
The management of the Wimbledon tennis tournament is vigorously fighting off a lawsuit filed by Adidas in early April, intended to exempt it for at least one go from the application of a recent decision by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and by the Grand Slam Committee, which insisted that ...
