Latest figures show ASICS Europe continues to grow across the continent, delivering an overall net sales increase of 10% between January and December 2013i, and reaching a consolidated turnover of €660 million. The increase was largely driven by huge growth across footwear and apparel in the brand’s running and tennis categories.
ASICS performed particularly well in performance running – the brand’s key strategic category – with running apparel up by 24% and running footwear up by 13%. ASICS remains the leading sports performance footwear brand and recorded a year-on-year double digit growth in running apparel – with particularly strong growth in the women’s segment – establishing itself as the fourth biggest running apparel brand.
ASICS will look to build further on this impressive growth in 2014 by featuring a television commercial which focuses solely on performance enhancing apparel as part of their ‘Better your Best’ brand campaign.In tennis, ASICS is the fastest growing footwear brand with 23% growth and is ranked in the top-three tennis brands. ASICS recorded an impressive double digit sales growth in tennis apparel of 75%, again clearly showing above-market growth. The growth was supported by the latest news that ASICS is now the number one leading tennis footwear brand in Spain.
ASICS will look to continue this growth in the tennis market in 2014 with a tennis specific print and film campaign titled ’Advantage You’. Around Roland Garros there will also be a targeted TV advertising campaign across Eurosport and other National French TV networks.
The key regions that contributed to the revenue growth across Europe (EMEA) include ASICS Benelux, which posted a solid single digit growth. Meanwhile ASICS Germany, Scandinavia, France, Spain, Austria, Poland, Russia and the European distributors delivered strong double digit growth figures.
Natural Running continues to be one of the biggest driving forces in the running footwear market. This was signified by ASICS launching their first natural shoe for over pronators late in 2013 – the ASICS GEL-Super J33 – and the company continues to demonstrate a strong annual increase in this category, currently placed number two in both France and Germany.
Alistair Cameron, CEO of ASICS Europe B.V. comments:
“We’re extremely pleased that ASICS Europe has been able to accelerate its growth in 2013. Not only have we achieved success in performance running – our key strategic category – but particularly pleasing is our continued growth and success across core performance sports, such as tennis. We also signed a long-term agreement as kit supplier of the South-African Rugby Union, which will see the business grow hugely in Africa and increase brand awareness in Rugby ahead of the 2015 Rugby World Cup. With the South-African Rugby Union, the opening of more flagship stores and the roll-out of our e-commerce platform in 2014, ASICS has yet another strong year ahead.”
