Latest News & Analysis – Page 236
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Ispo Munich discloses new attendance figures
Messe München has shared with us more details about the flow of visitors at the last edition of the Ispo Munich trade show, which took place on Feb. 5-8. As previously reported, total attendance grew by 2.7 percent to more than 83,000 daily passes through the turnstiles, with increases of ...
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Crocs and George Fisher use drones
While Amazon is testing the use of helicopter drones to transport books rapidly to customers in the U.S., Crocs used a commercially available type of drone last month to transport shoes at a pop-up store in Tokyo, and George Fisher, the leading outdoor retailer in the English Lake District, is ...
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British government to support outdoor recreation
The Outdoor Industries Association (OIA) of the U.K. held a successful annual meeting and convention earlier this week in the middle of the Lake District. Helen Grant, the U.K. minister for sport and tourism, who was born in the region, agreed to attend the meeting but could not make any ...
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Black Diamond explores strategic alternatives
The stock market valuation of Black Diamond Inc. shot up by 37 percent to $315 million after the company reported strong progress in sales and margins and announced that it has retained two financial advisers to lead the exploration of “a full range of strategic alternatives” for each its remaining ...
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Black Diamond strengthens its commercial department
Black Diamond has announced that Heath Christensen and Tor Brown are returning to the company in new roles as director of sales for North America and mountain line category director, respectively. Matt Burbach will also join the company as senior retail marketing manager and Glenn Ritter has been internally promoted ...
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Gregory’s purchase helps Samsonite to diversify
Last July's acquisition of Gregory Mountain Products from Black Diamond and its earlier takeover of High Sierra helped Samsonite to record a 25.1 percent currency-neutral increase in the revenues of its casual product category last year. In terms of dollars, the segment grew by 22.4 percent to $252.1 million.Gregory contributed ...
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Thule’s backpacks hit the market
Thule's first line of technical backpacks, which was launched at the OutDoor fair in Friedrichshafen last July, is making its retail debut this month at specialty outdoor stores like Naturkompaniet and Outnorth in Sweden or Globetrotter in Germany. The distribution of the packs, which are protected by several patents, is ...
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Tecnica gets the blessing of its lenders
The Tecnica Group announced the successful completion of a new financing agreement with a pool of banks that have supported the company over the past years. The company will benefit from a new credit line of €175 million, including €110 million for its seasonal working capital requirements and a new ...
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Columbia rejigs top management
Columbia Sportswear has announced a reorganization of its top management, describing it as a move to drive continued profitable growth. The group expects the company's sales to expand at double-digit rates for apparel in constant currencies this year, compared with $1.7 billion in 2014, while footwear sales are predicted to ...
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Jack Wolfskin appoints a new CFO
Jack Wolfskin is continuing to rejig its executive team, with the appointment of Axel Mau as chief financial officer. The job had been handled temporarily by Christian Brandt, after the departure of Andreas Klotz two years ago. Brandt will also be stepping down from his job as chief operating officer ...
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Fjällräven drives higher sales at Fenix
Robust sales for the Fjällräven brand enabled the Fenix Outdoor International group to deliver ample sales and profit gains last year, in spite of the warm weather in the last quarter. It marked the end of a year in which the Swedish group acquired another dimension, ending up with a ...
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Lafuma turns around
The Lafuma Group reported a quantum improvement in the financial year ended Dec. 31, posting a net profit of €2,270,000 for the period against a net loss of €69,196,000 in the comparable 12-month period through December 2013. It booked ordinary operating earnings of €3,039,000 versus an operating loss of €4,233,000. ...
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Wolverine turns around in the quarter
Wolverine Worldwide has great hopes for the ongoing progress of its biggest brand, Merrell, through the introduction of Capra, its new range of waterproof boots named after the goat, which is enjoying particularly strong demand in Europe.The range features a sole, developed in cooperation with Vibram, that replicates the foot ...
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Decline in outdoor sales at Fiskars
Focusing on the Gerber brand, sales of outdoor products declined by 8 percent to €114.2 million at Fiskars last year, despite a rise of 3 percent in the last quarter. Sales in constant currencies were down by 2 percent in the quarter and by 7 percent in constant currencies. The ...
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Garmin performs better in fitness than outdoor
Garmin reported a 4 percent sales increase to $427.9 million in the outdoor segment for the financial year ended last Dec. 27, but there was a decline of 8 percent in the fourth quarter. Flat sales are expected in 2015.The quarterly gross margin and the operating margin remained strong at ...
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Bottles lift Camelbak sales
Camelbak, the American company specializing in hydration packs, lifted its sales by 6.3 percent to $148.7 million last year. The increase was driven by more sales of bottles and gloves, while sales of hydration systems slightly declined.This drop in sales of hydration systems was reportedly attributed to the company having ...
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Alfa prepares to expand internationally
Alfa, the Norwegian outdoor footwear company, is preparing to open offices in Sweden and Finland as it starts to explore foreign markets in earnest. This comes after the company has entirely overhauled its range and brand identity over the last three years to fit international demand.Alfa's managers began to review ...
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Rewoolution is set for a revolution
Successori Reda, the Italian manufacturer of higher-end fabrics and marketer of the Rewoolution brand of functional sports apparel in merino wool and other products, was able to present impressive figures at Ispo Munich. The company's total sales went up in 2014 by 15 percent and reached a total of €80 ...
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Record amounts collected for outdoor conservation at Ispo
The European Outdoor Conservation Association (Eoca) collected an overall €8,556 from the recent Ispo trade show in Munich. The Smartwool Vending Machine, which distributed socks on site, proved particularly successful, as it raised nearly €6,500. Socks also proved popular during the Eoca Happy Hour, which reportedly saw Teko Socks being ...
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A.S. Adventure will expand after takeover, also in France
Lion Capital has agreed to sell its majority share in the A.S. Adventure Group to PAI, a French-based private equity firm. The buyer is supposed to support continued store openings for the leading European outdoor retailer in its current markets, with perhaps more rapid expansion in France.The Belgian-based retail group, ...
