>> Business News April

TFL publishes every month business news with focus on the leather industry, on a worldwide basis.

Record year for Ecco

The year 2011 was the best ever for Ecco in terms of results. Net sales rose by 16 percent to 7.1 billion Danish kroner (955 million Euro). Pre-tax profit was up to a record 904 million kroner (121.6 million Euro). The fastest growing region with a 35 percent jump in sales was Asia, with China taking the lead. Sales in Europe, Eccos’s biggest market contributing a total of share of 62 percent, rose 15% thanks mainly to strong business in Eastern Europe. But established markets such as Germany also showed good growth rates. In the light of the order situation to date for the spring/summer season and initial forecasts for the autumn, the management at Ecco is expecting further growth for the current year.

Geox heading for further growth

In the past year Geox sales were up by 4.4 percent to 887.3 million Euro. Operational profit (Ebitda) was 121.5 million Euro , net profit being 50.2 million Euro. The group’s chief market, accounting for 38 percent of sales, is still Italy. Double-digit growth was achieved mainly outside Europe. In Europe itself growth was only moderate.

Zalando starting in Scandinavia

Footwear and fashion supplier Zalando is poised to enter the Scandinavian market in May. To date the company been operating in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Italy, The Netherlands and Great Britain.

Jack Wolfskin: strong growth in footwear

In the financial year 2011 Jack Wolfskin managed to achieve a further marked increase in consolidated sales, this time by 22.5 percent to 355 million Euro. All product segments (apparel, equipment and footwear) and all marketing channels contributed to this positive achievement. The footwear segment recorded an above-average increase of more than 35 percent. Growth in Europe with the exception of Germany was also above average. In region Asia sales more than doubled.

Jack Wolfskin retails chiefly through outdoor and sportswear outlets besides franchise stores. To date, there are 300 franchisees throughout Europe as a whole, plus an equal number in China where the brand had advanced very swiftly to fourth place in the outdoor market. At the end of the financial year 2011 Jack Wolfskin had 630 employees groupwide as against 532 a year earlier.

Crocs clears the billion dollar hurdle

In the last financial year Crocs sales topped one billion dollars for the first time. Revenues jumped 27 percent to 1,001 billion dollars and net profit doubled to almost 112.8 million dollars, following new product introductions and selling price hikes.