Latest News & Analysis – Page 275

  • Article

    Bradshaw Taylor takes on Timbuk2 for Northern Europe

    2011-08-16T00:00:00Z

    Bradshaw Taylor is a big distributor of foreign outdoor brands, based in the U.K., that already covers a large part of the European market. For example, it has a contract with Royal Robbins for all of Europe, and it distributes Icebreaker not only in the U.K. and Ireland, but also ...

  • Article

    Blacks has new investor, new chief, but suffers from U.K. riots

    2011-08-16T00:00:00Z

    Henderson Global Investors, a London-based equity firm which went public in 2003, hs acquired a major stake in Blacks Leisure, the big British outdoor and sports retailer. It now has 17.12 percent of the voting rights, which makes it the second largest shareholder of the chain behind Sportsdirect.com Retail (21.3 ...

  • Article

    Hilleberg enters China

    2011-08-16T00:00:00Z

    The leading Swedish maker of high-end tents has struck a distribution agreement with Shanghai Leeway Company, which showed three of its products in front of its booth at the recent Asia Outdoor fair in Nanjing. Officials of Hilleberg said th ey concluded the deal after meetings with more than 20 ...

  • Article

    Amer likes outdoor more than tennis or golf

    2011-08-16T00:00:00Z

    + Salomon continued to drive the expansion of the Amer Sports group in the second quarter, contributing to hefty increases in its footwear and apparel sales. The rise in the Finnish group's footwear sales came mostly from hiking and trail-running products, with increases in all regions.As part of the company's ...

  • Article

    Lafuma’s sales growth accelerates

    2011-08-16T00:00:00Z

    +The Lafuma Group's sales expanded faster in its third quarter ended June 30, driven by a 10.6 percent rise in revenues from outside France. The momentum is expected to continue in the fourth quarter and in the first quarter of the company's 2012 fiscal year, owing to a significant increase ...

  • Article

    Black Diamond Inc.improves sales and margins

    2011-08-16T00:00:00Z

    Black Diamond Inc., the marketer of the Black Diamond and Gregory brands, reached sales of $28.3 million in the second quarter ended June 30, compared with $7.7 million in the same period of 2010. On a pro forma basis, including the sales of Gregory Mountain Products prior to its acquistion ...

  • Article

    Deckers posts a temporary loss

    2011-08-16T00:00:00Z

    Deckers Outdoor Corporation, parent company of Ugg, Teva, Tsubu and Ahnu completed on July 5 the acquisition of Sanuk, a surf-inspired brand of sandals and other types of shoes, whose sales jumped by 57 percent in the first half of this year to about $43 million. The brand is sold ...

  • Article

    Outdoor market supports LaCrosse

    2011-08-16T00:00:00Z

    + LaCrosse Footwear increased revenues by 2 percent to $27.1 million in the second quarter ended June 25 thanks to strong growth in outdoor sales. The Portland, Oregon, company continued to be loss-making, booking a $0.2 million net loss compared with a net profit of $0.1 million a year earlier. ...

  • Article

    Rocky Brands improves margins on less military

    2011-08-16T00:00:00Z

    Rocky Brands suffered a decline in sales to the U.S. military as well. It was partly offset by higher retail and wholesale revenues, but the drop nevertheless led to a decline of 5.5 percent in total sales to $52.3 million in the second quarterAs military sales carry lower prices and ...

  • Article

    Europe leads Crocs’ growth

    2011-08-16T00:00:00Z

    + Europe was Crocs' fastest growth market in the second quarter ended on June 30, rising by 50.4 percent to $52.2 million. For the first time ever, Asia became the company's largest market, overtaking the Americas. But the feat will be short-lived and the Americas should remain the group's biggest ...

  • Article

    KingCamp moves into Central Europe 

    2011-08-16T00:00:00Z

    KingCamp, a big player in the Chinese market of outdoor and camping goods, has moved into the German-speaking countries by appointing Venta Sport from Frankfurt as its distributor. Unlike most other Chinese brands, KingCamp is not limited to the domestic market, but already sells into 38 countries worldwide. Other more ...

  • Article

    Opportunities and risks of a widening outdoor market

    2011-08-16T00:00:00Z

    The so-called outdoor market is getting broader and more difficult to define as the major outdoor brands are expanding their product lines in both the technical and lifestyle segments. Illustrated by the wider spring/summer 2012 offerings presented at the OutDoor show in Friedrichshafen and the Outdoor Retailer show in Salt ...

  • Article

    Blackstone takes over Jack Wolfskin; Manfred Hell steps down

    2011-07-22T00:00:00Z

    Finally, Jack Wolfskin has changed ownership after a couple of months of negotiations with various bidders. As indicated before, Blackstone, the private equity firm, is taking over the “Paw.” The price being paid was not disclosed, but unconfirmed reports indicate that it might be around €700 million. In the previous ...

  • Article

    Branded outdoor footwear is on fire

    2011-07-22T00:00:00Z

    Our annual survey of the global branded rugged outdoor footwear market shows a strong increase of 12.8 percent in 2010 at the wholesale level in terms of U.S. dollars. Some of the growth was obviously the result of price increases and replenishment of inventories by retailers who had ordered little ...

  • Article

    Prices are going up, more or less selectively

    2011-07-22T00:00:00Z

     Cost increases have been experienced by practically every vendor of footwear and clothing products in the outdoor, athletic and casual markets over the past 12 months. More than 70 percent of them have decided to reflect the higher input costs in one way or another in the prices that they ...

  • Article

    VF is optimistic after a good quarter

    2011-07-22T00:00:00Z

    VF Corporation, the owner of The North Face and many other outdoor, sports and fashion brands, has upgraded its guidance for sales and profits for the full year, after all of its units continued to blaze ahead in the second quarter and it managed to limit the impact of rising ...

  • Article

    Asics is working hard on synergies with Haglöfs

    2011-07-22T00:00:00Z

    Everybody was surprised a year ago when Asics, the big Japanese vendor of athletic footwear, bought Haglöfs, the big Swedish player in outdoor gear. We took the opportunity to ask Alistair Cameron, Asics' European chief, how far he has come to bundle the two brands.According to Cameron, the two brands ...

  • Article

    Italy’s Rewoolution gets in on Merino craze

    2011-07-22T00:00:00Z

    The skyrocketing trend toward apparel based on Merino wool remains unbroken and attracts more and more new brands. The latest specialty brand for this offer comes from Italy and is called Rewoolution. It was founded one year ago outside Biella by Successori Reda, owned by the Botto Poala family. The ...

  • Article

    Czech retailer plans foray into Poland

    2011-07-22T00:00:00Z

    Hudy Sport, the leading outdoor retailer in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, is preparing to move into the Polish market with several store openings early next year. The first two stores should open in Poznan and Warsaw in March and April, based on the same concept and with the same ...

  • Article

    Major South African retailer goes public

    2011-07-22T00:00:00Z

    Holdsport, a company formerly known as Moresport that runs 33 Sportmans Warehouse and 18 Outdoor Warehouse stores in South Africa, went public on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. The transaction gave the company a valuation of about 1.33 billion rand (€136.3m-$196.4m), resulting in a small capital gain for its major shareholder, ...