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Stronger integration between two French buying groups

SGI Europe — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:56:36 +0000

Twinner France, a buying group with some 200 affiliated stores, has acquired a financial stake in another French cooperative, Les Pros du Sport, which counts 350 doors. The two networks had already signed a collaboration agreement in April 2010 to optimize their relations with their suppliers and to raise the volume of their joint orders at special conditions, guaranteed by centralized settlements through Garant Schuh.

Go Sport plans to launch a capital increase

SGI Europe — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:23:31 +0000

The French Go Sport Group is planning to launch a capital increase of about €30 million to accelerate its recovery, which was halted last year by unseasonable weather conditions. The group saw its gross margin fall last year to 41.0 percent on slightly lower revenues of €680.4 million. It suffered an operating loss of €8.1 million, against a profit of €1.2 million the year before. Net losses increased to €20.0 million from €5.9 million.

Airbag saves snowboarder

SGI Europe — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:43:01 +0000

Backcountry Access (BCA) has reached an extremely high level of awareness with a film broadcast on Youtube that has been viewed so far by no less than 730.000 people. The film shows an athlete, Meesh Hytner, taking part in a grassroots snowboard freeriding event and getting into trouble with loads of snow. The rider was caught by a Class 3 avalanche. She escaped without injuries using her BCA Float 30 airbag, which enabled her to remain on the surface throughout the slide. Check out the film at http://youtu.be/h7QFRXc0R8M, which does show in an impressive way the usefuleness of such devices.

Saucony and and other Collective brands expand internationally

SGI Europe — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 04:33:02 +0000

The search for new investors is not preventing Collective Brands, the American multi-brand group, from accelerating its efforts to expand internationally: Saucony, its specialty brand of running shoes, has picked Tavistock Group Mexico as its new distributor for the Central American country. Tavistock, which operates through 160 business units in 15 countries, will also take on the development at wholesale and retail in Mexico for Sperry Top-Sider, another brand in the Collective Brands family. Saucony has also enlisted a distributor for Uruguay, Motociclo Sports, and one for Argentina, SAV. More distribution, retail and licensing agreements have been sealed for two other brands of the group, Keds and Pro-Keds, adding altogether ten new countries including Japan, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Indonesia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

The Chinese market is growing by 15.5%

SGI Europe — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 04:30:22 +0000

In a presentation made on the eve of ISPO BEIJING, which opened today, Robbert de Kock, secretary-general of the World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry (WFSGI), outlined some of the key trends in the Chinese market. Based in part on research made by NPD and GfK, WFSGI estimates that the sporting goods retail market will be growing by 15.5 percent to $23.0 billion in 2012, after an 18.1 percent increase to $19.9 billion in 2011. On the other hand, foreign retailers only account for 3 percent of the overall retail business in the country and not all of them are working on a profitable basis yet. Furthermore, in spite of the impressive size of the Chinese population and its economy, the ratio of consumption in the gross domestic product is only 35 percent – much lower than in big markets like Japan (55%), France (57%), Brazil (65%) or the U.S. (71 percent).

Strong start for ISPO BEIJING

SGI Europe — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 04:26:51 +0000

At the opening press conference of the show in Beijing, Klaus Dittrich, chairman of Messe München, presented promising figures for the edition being held in the Chinese capital with an extended duration of four days from Feb. 22 to Feb. 25. As compared to last year’s three-day show, the number of exhibitors at ISPO BEIJING is up by 28 percent to a total of 353, and the net exhibition space has soared by 37 percent to 13,600 square meters. The number of Chinese exhibitors has risen by 20 percent to 290, and the new ones include MobiGarden, KingCamp and K2 Summit. Among the newcomers from abroad are prominent names like Bogner, DC, Deuter, Eagle Creek, Five Ten, Meindl, Protest, Salomon, Vaude and X-Bionic. Well-known brands that have decided to return to the Chinese fair are Lowa, Burton, Northland and Sympatex. Besides the Alpitec China show, which again showcases facilities for snow sports in cooperation with Fiera Bolzano, a special focus of this year’s ISPO BEIJING is on action sports such as skateboarding, snowboarding and surfing.

ISPO helps collect money for conservation

SGI Europe — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 12:04:17 +0000

The European Outdoor Conservation Association (EOCA) says that it raised over €6,500 during the recent ISPO MUNICH show to support projects in 2012. The nonprofit organization collected €5,200 through the sale at its own booth of smoothies, sponsored by Nikwax, and the sale of goody bags, with which participants could pick up various items from EOCA members’ stands. A further €1,400 was generously donated to the association by the ISPO trade fair itself – raising the money through donations for drinks and snacks at the Snow Ice & Rock Summit during the four days of the show. EOCA has thus come a step closer to its aim of raising one million euros under its six-year-old program. All the funds collected at shows and through membership fees go directly into conservation projects. ISPO has vowed to raise more money for EOCA in 2013.

Euretco is set to get the Dutch Intersport license

SGI Europe — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 18:31:44 +0000

There is nothing official yet, but according to Dutch officials involved in the transaction, Euretco and Intres, the Dutch buying groups that run the Sport 2000 and Intersport banners in the Netherlands, respectively, have firmed up plans to retain Intersport as their only joint licensed banner if their intended merger is approved in the coming weeks. In the merger, however, Euretco, which has been licensing the Sport 2000 banner, would come out as the majority shareholder in a joint company called Euretco. Euretco says that it would lead the search for another partner for the stores currently affiliated to Sport 2000 in the Netherlands. As reported before, the apparently most logical partner would be ANWR, which runs the Fair Play International Sports organization in the Benelux countries, but Euretco indicates that several other Dutch parties have come forward. Euretco’s intention at present is to transfer the business to another party as it stands today, implying that none of the current Sport 2000 retailers would switch to Intersport (at least initially). More in last Friday’s issue of SGI Europe.

Fewer golfers in Europe

SGI Europe — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 18:13:16 +0000

KPMG’s latest survey of golf participation in Europe found the first drop in more than 20 years. In 2011, there were 46,000 fewer registered golfers than the year before. The biggest drops came in the U.K. and Ireland, down by 42,700 (3.1 percent); Sweden, down by 21,000 (4.1 percent); and Spain, which lost 9,700 golfers (2.9 percent). The total number of registered golfers for the year was under 4.4 million, down by 1 percent. Despite this, the Golf Participation in Europe 2011 survey found that the number of golf courses in Europe went up by 0.7 percent to 6,740. For 25 years, golf has been booming in Europe, with participation more than tripling since the 1980s. The number of courses has doubled in that time. Growth has slowed since 2005, but last year was the first actual decline. KPMG’s survey notes that golf is still dominated by men, with the percentage of female players rising only in the German-speaking countries and the Netherlands. Ten percent of all golfers are juniors, with high proportions in Turkey (52 percent) and Serbia (34 percent). KPMG’s Golf Advisory Practice conducts the annual survey, and results are available at www.golfbusinesscommunity.com.

PPR eyes €9.6 billion in sport & lifestyle revenues

SGI Europe — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 17:53:33 +0000

Describing it as an “ambition” rather than a goal, the management of PPR told financial analysts last week that the group would like to reach a level of €24 billion in revenues by the year 2020, with 40 percent of that coming from its expanding sport and lifestyle division, whose brand portfolio now includes Puma, Cobra, Tretorn, Volcom and Electric. The rest would come from a tripling in the organic growth of its luxury brands, led by Gucci and comprising other assets such as Bottega Veneta, Yves Saint Laurent and newly acquired Brioni. The €24 billion figure would compare with the total revenues of €12.2 billion that the French group reached in 2011, up by 11.1 percent from the previous year. Boosted by its $607.5 million acquisition of Volcom, which was consolidated last July 1, the sport & lifestyle division saw its sales grow by 16.6 percent to €3,156 million, or 26 percent of the group’s total turnover. More in the last issue of SGI Europe.