Latest Headlines – Page 506

  • Article

    Mike Ashley May Launch An Action Sports Retailing Chain

    2006-04-26T00:00:00Z

    Mike Ashley, the owner of Sports World International, is making waves again in the British market through the proposed launch of Alive, a new chain of action sports stores. Some of the doors will likely use the premises of stores belonging to Hargreaves and Gilesports, the two British sporting goods ...

  • Article

    Budget Sport Is On The Starting Block

    2006-04-26T00:00:00Z

    Kesko, the Finnish shareholder and licensee of Intersport International Corporation (IIC), is going to open the first Budget Sport retail store early next month in Vantaa, a suburb of the Finnish capital. With a net retail surface of 3,200 square meters, it will be the biggest sporting goods store in ...

  • Article

    Warren Buffett Buys Russell

    2006-04-26T00:00:00Z

    Offering $597 million in cash, Berkshire Hathaway purchased a battered but improving Russell Corporation. The investment company of Warren Buffet will assume $400 million in debt, putting the total value of the deal at about $1 billion. In 2005, Russell had $1.4 billion in turnover and earnings before interest, taxes, ...

  • Article

    Gbmi Sells Pony To Its Chinese Producer

    2006-04-26T00:00:00Z

    Sharp Gain Profits, a member of the Symphony Holdings Group based in Hong Kong, has bought all the shares in Pony from Global Brand Marketing Inc. and two other smaller shareholders, The Firm Shoes and Itochu International, in a deal reported at around $15-20 million. GBMI, which lost a lot ...

  • Article

    Boekhoorn Is Set To Acquire O’Neill Assets

    2006-04-26T00:00:00Z

    Marcel Boekhoorn, the wealthy Dutch investor who has already acquired the parent company of Gaastra Sportswear, has apparently signed a letter of intent for the takeover of Joint Services International (JSI), which holds most of the rights to the O’Neill brand in Europe. Though the speculation could not be confirmed, ...

  • Article

    Odlo And Kjus Change Ownership

    2006-04-26T00:00:00Z

    TowerBrook Capital Partners has acquired a majority stake in Odlo Sports Group, paying between one and two times the company’s annual revenues which grew last year by 20 percent to about 120 million Swiss francs (€76m-$95m). The $2.5 billion international investment company, which has offices in London and New York, ...

  • Article

    Erik Mhyren Runs Mountain Force

    2006-04-26T00:00:00Z

    Erik Mhyren, a veteran of the Norwegian and European sporting goods market who left as manager of Lasse Kjus International last October, is now the chief executive of a new active sportswear company, Mountain Force, set up in Klosters, Switzerland last January. The major shareholder is Peter Jud, well-known in ...

  • Article

    Basicnet More Than Doubles In Value After Shedding Chinese Brand Rights

    2006-04-26T00:00:00Z

    With the share price now at €1.31, up from the previous level of about 50 cents, the stock market value of BasicNet has more than doubled to some €78 million. The feat is the result of an announcement that the Italian company is netting US$35 million from the sale of ...

  • Article

    Outdoor Division Propels Vf In Quarter

    2006-04-26T00:00:00Z

    VF Corp. performed better than it had anticipated in the 1st quarter, ended March 31, as the company’s net income rose by 12 percent to $128,185,000, a record high. Operating income was up by 8.8 percent to $202,947,000 from revenues that grew by 5.3 percent to $1,665,733,000. VF’s ...

  • Article

    Merrell Continues To Drive Wolverine

    2006-04-26T00:00:00Z

    For Wolverine World Wide’s overall European business, revenues were up by 12 percent and profits grew by double digits. The Michigan-based company continues to grow strongly through its strategy of building a strong portfolio of lifestyle brands, reporting a 7.2 percent increase in total revenues to $262.8 million in its ...

  • Article

    Shift Towards Eyewear Begins To Show In Oakleys’S First Quarter

    2006-04-26T00:00:00Z

    In the 1st quarter ended March 31, the company’s optics sales had strong growth of 12.3 percent to $107.0 million, underlining the recent announcement by Oakley’s new management that it would shift its focus away from apparel and footwear and more to its core optical business. Several factors played into ...

  • Article

    Adidas Has Begun Integrating The Supply Chain For Its Two Brands

    2006-04-26T00:00:00Z

    As part of the structural changes being implemented following its tie-up with Reebok, Adidas is centralizing distribution and logistic functions which were previously in the hands of their respective headquarters, their subsidiaries and their service providers, triggering annual projected savings of €20 million a year. Three-fourths of these cost savings ...

  • Article

    Poland’S Diverse Opens Shop In The West

    2006-04-26T00:00:00Z

    While enjoying heady growth in Poland and in several other East European countries, the Polish sports lifestyle brand is opening new stores in France, Germany, Switzerland and other countries, following a successful model already tested in Hungary and the Czech Republic. Diverse opened its first French store in the ...

  • Article

    Sos Has Made A Comeback Under New Ownership

    2006-04-26T00:00:00Z

    SOS, the Swedish ski apparel brand, has made an impressive comeback under new ownership over the last three years. While it had somewhat faded away over the previous years, SOS has been enjoying buoyant growth after a repositioning in Sweden. It reached sales of 70 million Swedish kronor (€7.5m-$9.2m) last ...

  • Article

    New Women-only Retail Concept Is Born In France

    2006-04-26T00:00:00Z

    Two brothers intend to fill the gap in women-oriented French sports retailing by launching a fresh format called Attractive. Christophe and Nicolas Deconinck will open the first store under this name on 150 square meters in Paris next September, and they are planning to build up a network of about ...

  • Article

    Cultures Clash Or Complement Each Other At Adidas And Reebok

    2006-04-26T00:00:00Z

    When he traveled to London two weeks ago to make a speech on the benefits of Reebok’s costly acquisition, Herbert Hainer, Adidas’ chief executive, carried with him a pair of Reebok’s Premiere running shoes to try them out. Hainer admitted that he had yet to buy his first pair of ...

  • Article

    Intersport Retailers Reach Global Sales Of €7.73 Billion After Vat

    2006-04-12T00:00:00Z

    The retailers affiliated with Intersport around the world increased their sales by 5.4 percent in 2005, reaching an estimated total turnover after value-added tax of €7.73 billion. Franz Julen, chief executive of Intersport International Corp. (IIC), is confident that the growth rate will be the same or higher this year, ...

  • Article

    Adidas Goes For Teams, Reebok For Icons

    2006-04-12T00:00:00Z

    The tie-up between Adidas and Reebok has begun to take shape with the spectacular transfer of Reebok’s exclusive licensed apparel deal with the National Basketball Association (NBA) to Adidas from the next playing season until 2017. The newly formed Adidas Group says that Adidas can help spread the practice of ...

  • Article

    Adidas Group Expects €500 Million In Additional Revenues From The Merger

    2006-04-12T00:00:00Z

    The Adidas group has upgraded its sales forecast for the next years, after intense discussions with Reebok apparently revealed more growth opportunities than the two companies spotted at the time when Adidas negotiated the costly €3.78 billion acquisition last August. While the short-term challenges related to the takeover are bigger ...

  • Article

    The French Sporting Goods Market Grew By Only 1% In 2005

    2006-04-12T00:00:00Z

    It’s been the lowest growth for the big French market in at least 20 years. French consumers went shopping in the sporting goods stores like before, in spite of the absence of any major international sports competitions, but they spent less, partly because average selling prices declined and because of ...