Jürgen Kiefer, who quit Uhlsport as managing partner in early 2007, is back in business. His recently created Kiefer Sport has struck a deal to license Umbro in Germany for the next five years. Kiefer’s new company has gotten support from a former sales manager of Uhlsport, Steffen Oestreicher, who is now is part of the new Umbro team.
The 49-year-old ran Diadora and Puma in the country before he joined Uhlsport in 1998. Kiefer invested in the German team sports brand by taking over a 25 percent stake in the company; the rest was then held by the Daiss family. In early 2007, Kiefer sold his stake to Daiss and disappeared from the sporting goods scene.
Umbro has been out of business in Germany since July 2007 when it announced the abrupt end of the license agreement that it had in place since 2000 with the Dutch Teamsport for the Benelux, Austrian and German markets. Teamsport was part of the Unlimited Sports Group, discussed in another article in this issue.
