Latest News & Analysis – Page 250
-
Article
Ispo jury selects “Products of the Year”
In addition to 51 “Gold Winners,” five products were chosen as “Product of the Year” at the recent Ispo Munich fair by an international jury of 48 experts from three continents. They evaluated no less than 418 product entries, 11 percent more than in 2013.The applications came from 27 countries.One ...
-
Article
The Fenix Outdoor group cultivates its founder’s legacy
A few weeks after his death at the end of last year, Åke Nordin was vividly remembered at the stand of the Fenix Outdoor group at Ispo, as a founder whose sharp business approach and hard-headed personality helped to develop the European outdoor industry.As previously reported, Nordin died after several ...
-
Article
Fenix Outdoor buys 20% of Globetrotter
A new European outdoor retail alliance is shaping up with the acquisition of a 20 percent stake in Globetrotter Ausrüstung, the big German specialty outdoor retailer, by Fenix Outdoor, the Swedish company that owns the Naturkompaniet chain in Sweden and Parioiatta in Finland. For its part, Globetrotter holds a 25 ...
-
Article
EOG provides more market data
The European Outdoor Group was unable to share the results of its annual “State of Trade” study of the European market at the OutDoor show in Friedrichshafen last July because of technical problems such as the installation of new software for data collection. Marc Held, secretary general of the EOG, ...
-
Article
Lafuma stabilizes, winding up its refinancing
The Lafuma Group has set Jan. 30 as the deadline for responses to its offer of additional shares at a low price of €9 each, with rights of first refusal for existing shareholders on a pro rata basis of their present holdings. The offer is open only to French investors, ...
-
Article
Industry stocks got a 49% boost in 2013
The stock market capitalization of 15 major public companies in the outdoor sports sector jumped by 48.6 pecent last year, reaching a total of $300.5 million.The evolution was similar to that of the sporting goods market in general, which has consistently outperformed the general economy in the last five ...
-
Article
Wolverine cuts revenue outlook for full 2013
Wolverine Worldwide expects to announce earnings at the high end of its previous guidance of $0.85 to $0.90 a share for the financial year ended last Dec. 28, indicating an improvement in net profit to between $85.5 million and $90.5 million, compared with $80.8 million in 2012. Excluding restructuring charges ...
-
Article
Five Ten appoints new global MD
Five Ten has appointed Wally Barker as global managing director. Barker, who joined the company two years ago, will also retain his current title of chief financial officer. Previously, he was president and chief financial officer of Quiksilver Japan.Five Ten has also named Laura Sanders to lead the company's global ...
-
Article
EOCA raises funds at Ispo
The European Conservation Alliance (EOCA), whose membership rose by 34 percent in 2013, is starting the new year with three new members including the first distributor: Nikwax Benelux. The two others are High Sierra, the U.S. backpacks company recently acquired by Samsonite, which has big plans in Europe, and Northshots ...
-
Article
Backcountry.com buys Bergfreunde.de
Backcountry.com, which claims to be the largest online specialty retailer of premium outdoor products in the U.S., has acquired Bergfreunde.de, the leading online retailer of climbing and mountaineering products in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The two companies plan to exchange know-how on e-commerce and and other subjects, but each company ...
-
Article
JD buys Activinstinct
JD Sports Fashion has acquired a majority stake at an undisclosed price in Activinstinct, a hybrid British retailer of outdoor and other sporting goods products whose sales have been growing rapidly, reaching an annual level of £24 million (€28.7m-$39.2m) in the past financial year, ended in August. The company has ...
-
Article
Bain takes over Canada Goose
Bain Capital has taken over control of Canada Goose on undisclosed conditions. It's an interesting move by Bain, the New York-based private equity firm that bought Jack Wolfskin from Johnson Outdoors in 2002 for €42 million and sold it for €93 million in 2005 to two other financial investors.Canada Goose, ...
-
Article
Premium positioning pays off for Moncler
Moncler, which started up in France in 1952 making sleeping bags, has become the third-largest luxury goods company on the Milan stock exchange after Luxottica and Salvatore Ferragamo. The king of the down jacket is now trading with a stock market capitalization of around €3.7 billion, or nearly 40 times ...
-
Article
New directions at Fusalp
Fusalp is the French sports apparel company that pioneered the so-called “fuseau,” a highly technical style of stretch ski pants attached to the foot in the early 1950s. They were worn by many famous champions like Jean-Claude Killy in the 1960s, leading Fusalp to become the biggest supplier of skiwear ...
-
Article
Hybrid insulation systems emerge in the market
Considerations about pricing and animal cruelty have diminished the attractiveness of natural down as an insulation material in the U.S. to the advantage of synthetic insulation systems for outerwear, sleeping bags and other outdoor products. A survey of outdoor enthusiasts aged 18 to 45 conducted by Harris Interactive in the ...
-
Article
PrimaLoft announces its hybrid insulation
At least 20 brands have adopted PrimaLoft's new Performance Down Blend Insulation for use in their autumn/winter 2014/15 collections. Announcing this new hybrid insulation product ahead of the Ispo Munich show, where it will also present its new corporate image (see the next article in this issue), PrimaLoft stresses that ...
-
Article
PrimaLoft rebrands
Coinciding with its 25th anniversary and the launch of its new hybrid insulation technology (see the previous article), PrimaLoft is coming out with a new, sharpened corporate identity, an optimized branding framework and a stronger marketing staff, which will be showcased at the Ispo Munich fair at the end of ...
-
Article
Storm expands overseas
Export sales have come to represent nearly 50 percent of sales at Storm DFX, the British company known for its waterproofing and cleaning products for outdoor garments, and the ratio is expected to grow further following the appointment last summer of a dedicated export sales manager, Katy Walker.Walker, who has ...
-
Article
Greenpeace releases follow-up report on PFCs in outdoor apparel
The Greenpeace organization in Germany published last Dec. 12 a highly publicized “Detox Report” on the findings of a new investigation into the presence of perfluorinated and polyfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) and other hazardous chemicals, such as nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEs) and phthalates, in outdoor clothing. The report indicated that some of ...
-
Article
A new version of the Higg Index
The Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) has released the Higg Index 2.0, a new enhanced and web-based version of the Higg Index, first launched in July 2012 to better assess the sustainability of the outdoor and athletic industry's products and their supply chains. After 14 months of testing by dozens of ...
