News Briefs – Page 8
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News briefs
Sneaker re-selling platform WeTheNew launches a €20m funding round
French-based limited-edition sneaker re-selling platform WeTheNew has announced a €20 million capital funding round. The Series B funding round was led by C4 Ventures, along with Singular, the company’s historical investor and the investment arm of Chalhoub Group, Chalhoub Ventures & Acquisitions. Also supporting the venture is French national team ...
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News briefs
The German shoe maker EOD files for bankruptcy
The German footwear manufacturer EOD, known for the Groundies shoe brand, has filed for bankruptcy. The company applied for insolvency proceedings with the Freiburg District Court as it seeks to continue restructuring to get back on a stronger footing. EOD was already undergoing restructuring after liquidity came under pressure ...
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News briefs
KG Schuhkay enters protective shield proceedings
Despite better-than-expected results, the Hamburg-based footwear retailer KG Schuhkay has launched a restructuring process under a protective shield procedure, as the business outlook was clouded by the fallout from the war in Ukraine, soaring inflation and a general change in consumer behavior since the autumn/winter 2022 season. The procedure, ...
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News briefs
VeNetWork acquires Unimonteco and creates VeNeSport
VeNetWork SpA, a business accelerator that brings together 73 entrepreneurs from Italy’s Triveneto area, has announced the creation of VeNeSport, a new network of companies with a focus on sports footwear. Innovation consultant Flavio Alberti will head VeNeSport as the network’s president. More in Sporting Goods Intelligence Europe.
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News briefs
Skechers acquires Scandinavian distributor
Skechers has signed an agreement to acquire its existing Scandinavian distributor, Sports Connection Holding ApS. Sports Connection’s business includes 58 existing Skechers retail locations, several e-commerce solutions and more than 1600 wholesale customers. The company was established in Denmark in 1994 and has been Skechers’ exclusive distributor in the Nordic ...
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News briefs
Prada produces half of its shoes inhouse
Prada produces about half its footwear in-house. This compares with around 10 percent for clothing and about 30 percent in the case of leather goods. As part of its plans to increase its control over the supply chain, the Italian fashion plans to invest €60 million this year to boost ...
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News briefs
Kelso hikes its stake in THG
The investment company Kelso has increased its total stake in THG to 8.0 million shares, through a mix of ordinary shares and contracts for differences, representing around 0.55 percent of the total share capital of the British online retailer. The company said that the investment in THG is focused around ...
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News briefs
Allbirds expands and extends its credit line
Allbirds reported in a regulatory filing that it has entered into an amendment credit agreement with its lender, JPMorgan Chase, that increases the committed amount from $40 million to $50 million. In addition, the amended terms include an increase in the uncommitted additional borrowing capacity from $35 million to $50 ...
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News briefs
THG receives a preliminary takeover offer from Apollo
THG said that it has received “a highly preliminary and non-binding indicative proposal” from the private equity Apollo Global Management to acquire its entire issued and to be issued share capital. There can be no certainty that any firm offer will be made, the British online retailer added. Under U.K. ...
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News briefs
Bobux seeks a buyer as it goes into receivership
Bobux International, a New Zealand-based brand of children’s shoes, was placed into receivership after suffering from Covid-19 related supply chain issues and overstocking as well as the overhaul of its IT system that went over budget. The company was founded in 1991 by Colleen and Chris Bennett. In 2022, it ...
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News briefs
Shoe City sells 39 stores after failed acquisition by Arklyz
After 70 years in business, Shoe City filed for Chapter 11 reorganization on March 31, and the bankruptcy court authorized going-out-of-business (GOB) sales. The news comes after the failed acquisition of the Baltimore-based retail chain by the Swiss retail group Arklyz. In the summer of 2022, Arklyz, the owner of ...
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News briefsAmazon destroyed over 6m counterfeit items in 2022
Amazon claims that it destroyed over 6 million counterfeit goods in 2022 compared with some 3 million in 2021 and about 2 million in 2020. “Our efforts to identify and dismantle counterfeit organizations are working and making a positive impact. In 2022, Amazon’s Counterfeit Crimes Unit sued or referred for ...
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News briefs
FitFlop obtains new $30m long-term revolving credit facility
London-based Aurelius Finance Company announced that it has provided FitFlop, a footwear company also based in London, with a new $30 million five-year revolving credit facility to support the company’s long-term growth objectives. Aurelius Finance Company, a member of the Aurelius Group, is an independent secured lender providing asset-based financing ...
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News briefs
Clergerie placed into receivership
On March 29, a Paris-based commercial tribunal placed Maison Clergerie into receivership after failing to reach an arrangement between shareholders and creditors. The French maker of luxury footwear, which is based in Romans-sur-Isère, in the Drôme department, has been loss-making for several years, according to its interim manager, Dominique Bernard, ...
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News briefs
Ralf Ringer to stop selling footwear through third-party stores
Ralf Ringer plans to stop selling shoes through third-party multi-brand stores. The move is part of a new strategy under which the Russian footwear manufacturer and retailer intends to increasingly focus on developing its own stores and franchises. The company claims that multi-brand stores in Russia are massively moving towards ...
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News briefs
Prada to hire 400 people mainly in central Italy
Prada plans more than 400 hires by the end of 2023, mainly in the central Italian regions of Tuscany, Umbria and Marche, as it aims to bolster its production capacity and sustain growth. It noted that the Prada Group Academy will train more than 200 people. “The more than 400 ...
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News briefs
Next buys the Cath Kidston brand
Next has agreed to buy the brand name, domain names and intellectual property of CK Acquisitions, which owns the modern vintage brand Cath Kidston, from administrators for £8.5 million (€9.7 million). The British fashion retailer will license back to the administrators the cathkidston.com domain for up to 12 weeks to ...
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News briefs
Kaporal files for receivership
Kaporal, a French ready-to-wear retailer specialized in denim, said that it has asked to be placed into receivership by a Marseille-based court due to “unprecedent economic difficulties.” Kaporal noted that over the past years it was affected by the yellow vest protest movement, the Covid-19 pandemic, various national strikes and ...
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News briefs
Alibaba to split into 6 units
Alibaba will split into six business units that will have the right to raise funds independently and be listed. The restructuring aims to make the group “more agile, shorten decision making links and respond faster,” wrote the chairman and chief executive, Daniel Zhang, in a letter to staff. The six ...
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News briefs
Second expansion of ANWR Ordercenter O1 starts
The ANWR Group is expanding its Ordercenter O1 in Mainhausen with a second extension building, thus manifesting its claim to expand the campus from a regional order location to a European marketplace. With the commissioning of the new site (planned to open in April 2024), more than 90 manufacturers will ...
