New Wave Sports, a subsidiary of the big New Wave Group formed in 2008, has been renamed as Craft of Scandinavia, with an ambitious plan to raise its annual sales from around one billion Swedish kronor (€104.5m-$110.8m) to SEK 1.5 billion (€156.8m-$166.3m) by 2020, partly through a diversification into the segments of club sportswear and running shoes. The turnover already rose by about 10 percent last year.
Club sportswear and teamwear are being launched in the first quarter of this year. Craft already sells running apparel. The brand's first running shoes will be introduced in 2018. The shoes will initially be intended for running on asphalt, but the company makes no secret that the collection will expand in a few years' time.
The Swedish market is expected to continue to represent about 20 percent of sales for Craft, which is sold in 39 countries around the world. Elsewhere, most of the growth should take place in Germany, the Benelux countries, Denmark, Norway and the U.S., where Craft has direct distribution.
The changes have been in the works since May 2016. New Wave Sports had been formed initially to group Craft's operations with those of Seger, another subsidiary of the New Wave Group that makes and sells socks and distributed various brands in the Nordic countries. It subsequently dropped the distribution of Nordica and Rollerblade. It stopped selling Umbro in 2014. The only distribution contract left is with Speedo for the Scandinavian countries.
The New Wave Group, which has 46 different brands and an annual turnover of more than SEK 5.0 billion (€522.6m-$553.8m), will manage Seger and another sports brand, Cutter & Buck, separately.
