Latest News & Analysis – Page 244

  • Article

    German buying groups post improving outdoor sales, but jackets remain a problem

    2014-07-21T00:00:00Z

    For the first six months of 2014, Intersport reports an overall sales improvement of 4 percent against the first half of the previous year. Running was up by 22 percent and team sports soared by 32 percent thanks to the football feast in Brazil. With an increase of 4 percent, ...

  • Article

    Mammut parts ways with Sports Direct

    2014-07-21T00:00:00Z

    Mammut Sports Group has decided to no longer supply Sports Direct International (SDI), the huge British sports retailer with stores across Europe. Rolf Schmid, Mammut's chief executive, said that the decision had been taken “for strategic reasons,” and it would help to maintain its quality standards to the benefit of ...

  • Article

    L-Fashion rejigs management to invest in Asia and franchising

    2014-07-21T00:00:00Z

    Juha Luhtanen has been appointed to the helm of the L-Fashion Group's sports division, comprising the Icepeak and Luhta brands, among others. A former sales director of the sports division, he takes over from his elder brother Vesa Luhtanen, who previously combined the leadership of this division with the general ...

  • Article

    Klättermusen to clean up assortment, invest in marketing

    2014-07-21T00:00:00Z

    Klättermusen is preparing to slash its product range in the coming months, as part of the new management's efforts to simplify the offering of the distinctive Swedish outdoor brand and to move on to another scale in terms of distribution. The strategy is to be deployed by Johan Nordqvist, who ...

  • Article

    Ark expands into food, baby carriers and Japan

    2014-07-21T00:00:00Z

    Ark Consultants, the British outdoor distribution company, has launched its own brand of dried trekking food, Extreme Food. Ark Consultants is the British distributor of the Nordisk and Yeti brands as well as the owner of the Original Mountain Marathon (OMM) brand. Ark Consultants is familiar with the market of ...

  • Article

    Thule moves into outdoor backpacks

    2014-07-21T00:00:00Z

    The Thule Group has launched its first range of technical backpacks, to be sold from February. It was presented at the OutDoor show in Friedrichshafen for the first time and it will be launched in the U.S. at Outdoor Retailer in Salt Lake City in August. A global marketing campaign ...

  • Article

    Under new ownership, eVent revamps CI and products

    2014-07-21T00:00:00Z

    After the sale of eVent by GE to Clarcor, a filtration specialty company, at the beginning of this year, the manufacturer of laminates presented itself at OutDoor with an updated corporate identity and product innovations. The logo is new and the company has added a waterproof laminate to its ...

  • Article

    Katadyn reports stable sales for 2013

    2014-07-21T00:00:00Z

    The Katadyn Group, global market leader for portable water purification solutions, had stable sales of 45 million Swiss francs (€37.1m-$50.5m) last year. While demand from outdoor consumers was flat, partly due to bad weather in spring 2013, the Swiss group suffered on the export front because of the continued strength ...

  • Article

    Wolverine streamlines

    2014-07-21T00:00:00Z

    Wolverine Worldwide has decided to streamline its operations, terminating its footwear license with Patagonia after delivery of the autumn/winter 2014/15 collection and closing down about 140 under-performing stores in the next 18 months. About 75 percent of the stores, which have seen a slowdown in mall traffic, belong to the ...

  • Article

    The OutDoor show honors Polartec’s founder

    2014-07-21T00:00:00Z

    Aaron Feuerstein, the former owner of Malden Mills and the man behind Polartec, has been elected OutDoor Celebrity of the Year for 2014. The 88 year-old grandson of Malden Mills' founder was credited for changing the clothing that people wear for outdoor activities.Feuerstein joined Malden Mills as a junior manager ...

  • Article

    Timberland reaches environmental targets early

    2014-07-21T00:00:00Z

    In 2007, as part of its overall sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) commitment, Timberland set a number of performance targets related to its four CSR pillars, which are Factories, Climate, Product and Service. The goal was to achieve these targets by the year 2015 but the company has just ...

  • Article

    OutDoor will remain a trade-only show

    2014-07-11T00:00:00Z

    Plans to open up the OutDoor show in Friedrichshafen to consumers for an extra day, as is already the case with the Eurobike show on Lake Constance, have been set aside. A majority of the members of the European Outdoor Group, which is sponsoring the fair, voted against the proposal ...

  • Article

    Growth of 3.1% for outdoor in Europe, says the EOG

    2014-07-11T00:00:00Z

    The European outdoor market expanded by 3.1 percent to €4,776 million at the wholesale level in 2013, based on the State of Trade survey compiled by the European Outdoor Group (EOG). The organization estimates that this amounts to retail sales of more than €10 billion before sales taxes. The number ...

  • Article

    German buying groups post improving outdoor sales, but jackets remain a problem

    2014-07-11T00:00:00Z

    For the first six months of 2014, Intersport Germany reports an overall sales improvement of 4 percent against the first half of the previous year: Running was up by 22 percent and team sports naturally soared by 32 percent thanks to the football feast in Brazil.With an increase by 4 ...

  • Article

    Patagonia is opening new offices in Europe

    2014-07-11T00:00:00Z

    Patagonia is planning to transfer some of its European operations from its present European headquarters in the French town Annecy to a new European office in Amsterdam. It also wants to open sales offices in London and Munich to be closer to its clients in two of its major European ...

  • Article

    Ispo launches a summer show in Shanghai

    2014-07-11T00:00:00Z

    Building on the growing success of its Ispo Beijing fair, Messe München has finally announced a summer edition of its Chinese show and decided on the timing and the venue of the new event, which will be called Ispo Shanghai. After polling exhibitors and visitors and holding extensive one-on-one meetings ...

  • Article

    A lot of action at Sympatex

    2014-07-11T00:00:00Z

    Michael Kamm, chief executive of Sympatex Technologies, has disclosed that the refinanced company is discussing the acquisition of another firm, and that it is working on optimizing its textile manufacturing operations in Zittau to raise production levels and improve profitability in the long term.Sympatex' sales went up by about 3 ...

  • Article

    Lowa is back on the road to success

    2014-07-11T00:00:00Z

    The German-based producer of outdoor shoes, which is still under the control of Italy's Tecnica Group, managed to increase its total consolidated sales from €140 million in 2012 to €152 million in 2013 and expects to lift its consolidated sales once again to €161 million at the end of this ...

  • Article

    Strong growth for Norway’s Stormberg

    2014-07-11T00:00:00Z

    Stormberg of Norway grew last year at a strong rate of 31 percent, reaching a turnover of 377 million Norwegian kroner (€44.8m-$60.9), although the domestic market increased by only 3.4 percent. The net profit of the rapidly growing Norwegian outdoor clothing brand grew to NOK 29.2 million (€3.5-$4.7m), compared with ...

  • Article

    Timberland cuts off three suppliers

    2014-07-11T00:00:00Z

    Timberland has decided to stop working with an apparel factory following its latest audit for corporate social responsibility. It has also dropped a licensee for good and suspended relations with another one for three months, pending the implementation of corrective measures. The audit was conducted on 60 suppliers during the ...