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INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Chiemsee: New General Manager
Stefan Biergans started on April 1 as General Manager for German sportswear supplier Chiemsee. He succeeds Florian Steinberger who left the company in order to be Managing Partner of the Sport Invest Search Central Europe GmbH (Holzkirchen near Munich). Biergans previously worked as Global Product Director for clothing supplier s.Oliver.
ANWR: Increase in turnover
The buying group Ariston-Nord-West-Ring (ANWR), which owns Sport 2000, could increase its turnover again in 2007, up 0.4 per cent to nearly 5.5 billion Euro. All business units made a plus, except the sports unit, which made a minus of 2.6 per cent due to the weather and achieved only a turnover of 456 million Euro. Whereas the shoes unit could increase 6.1 per cent up to 846.2 million Euro, the finance services made a plus of 12.1 per cent and achieved nearly 14.8 billion Euro. The lion's share made the Activbank AG with 2.7 billion Euro (+6.7 per cent).
New proprietors: B Holding SpA purchases Briko
Helmet and goggles brand Briko was sold by the present owners, the Italian Type 20 srl, to the B Holding SpA located in Milan. President and General manager is Carlo Boroli, co-General Manager will be Maurizio Besozzi. In the future, Briko will trade under the name "Briko srl" as independent affiliated company.
Erika Reinhard leaves Garant/Fair Play
Erika Reinhard, responsible for the international merchandise management and also General Manager of Fair Play, recently left buying group Garant Schuh + Mode AG after 12 years. In the interim, Wolfgang Roessing, General Manager of the Garant-affilaited company Rexor Schuheinkaufsvereinigung GmbH, will take over her functions. Garant does not give any reasons for Reinhard leaving and her professional future is not known.
Skins enlarges its European management
Skins, Australian specialist for compression clothing with headquarters in Sydney, has enlarged its European team - new regional Sales and Marketing Managers are Christian Scheffold and David Ling.
Scheffold worked for Timberland and Quiksilver, at each supplier nine years. Lately he was Sales Director (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) for New Balance and responsible for the centralisation of the sports shoes supplier which bundles its European employees in England. The 43-year-old will function at Skins in Starnberg near Munich as Sales and Marketing Manager for Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy. In these countries are already Embassy Sports (Münster), Deluxe (Kufstein), Intrade AG (Aarwangen) and Teamsport (Bolzano) as distributors active.
Skins-CEO Jamie Fuller will control the worldwide business from Starnberg.
David Ling is responsible for England, France, and Scandinavia as Sales and Marketing Manager. The former rugby player and former adidas-manager works in Lichfield in England.
Heelys mobilises new forces in Europe
The US-American sports shoes supplier Heelys (Dallas) is to focus on the European market. Recently, a European headquarters was opened in Brussels. The newly-founded Heeling Sports EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) should enlarge the business. In Starnberg near Munich, a subsidiary was installed for distribution in Germany and Austria, directed by Dominik Wieder.
Swisspo is over
The winter sports fair Swisspo in Zurich has been cancelled. The final show was this March, where only a moderate number of visitors and exhibitors joined. According to Swisspo-General Manager Peter Hug, no other specialized fair is planned at the moment.
