The sports and leisure division of the New Wave Group raised its sales by 16 percent to 2,258 million Swedish kronor (€241.4m-$266.5m) last year, with more abundant sales in the U.S. and Europe. The division includes the Craft, Seger, Cutter & Buck and Ahead brands and it distributes Speedo in Scandinavia, among other brands and activities. It ended the year with a relatively weak quarter, as sales increased by 7 percent to SEK 539 million (€57.6m-$63.6m), with positive impact from currencies. Warm weather contributed to dropping sales in the retail channel, but sales were on the rise in the promo channel. The operating profit for the division in the quarter shrank by 8.9 percent to SEK 29.8 million (€3.19m-$3.52m), with non-recurring costs of SEK 8.1 million (€0.87m-$0.96m) in Russia (they amounted to SEK 18.4 million overall, with the remaining SEK 10.3 million going to financial costs). The entire group's sales jumped by 16 percent to SEK 4,965 million (€530.6m-$585.9m) and they were up by 8 percent in constant currencies for the full year, which New Wave described as a year of investment and stock building. Its gross profit margin amounted to 45.1 percent, down by 0.6 percentage points, due to unfavorable changes in the mix of products, countries and customers. The group's operating profit amounted to SEK 255.2 million (€27.3m-$30.1m), up by 2.1 percent, but the net profit was down by 17.9 percent to SEK 145.3 million (€15.5m-$17.1m). There is some concern at the group about the impact of the warm weather in the first quarter, but New Wave is broadly upbeat about the outcome of its investments and preparing to focus more on profit margins.

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