ASICS Europe has announced accelerated growth across its Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, delivering an overall 16.0% year on year increase in net sales in the first half of 2014. The increase was largely driven by strong growth across apparel and footwear in the brand’s running and tennis categories.
The half-year results show significant growth in the brand’s key strategic categories, running apparel and running footwear. ASICS reports that both categories have achieved double-digit growth. Running footwear was up by 17.9% in the six months to June 2014, and running apparel by 28.7%, with ‘particularly strong growth in the women’s segment’.
ASICS will build on this significant growth in the second half of 2014 through brand-marketing initiatives, including a new burst of above-the-line media focus on its ‘Better your Best’ brand campaign, which includes TV advertising. Aligning to an ASICS strategic category, the ‘Better your Best’ campaign focuses solely on performance-enhancing apparel.
Activity also features an editorial partnership with Eurosport focused on the European Athletics Championships (12-17 August, Zurich), highlighting ASICS’ role as official supplier and major sponsor for the Dutch, French, Italian and Finnish Athletics Federations.
Additionally, ASICS will launch its own TV documentary globally, showcasing the unique world-first trail challenge, ‘ASICS Outrun the Sun’.
ASICS notes that the significant growth in the first half of 2014 was generated across all European sales subsidiaries. ASICS Germany, Benelux, Austria, Norway and Russia posted solid single digit growth. Meanwhile ASICS France, Spain, Italy, UK, Sweden, Denmark and Poland, delivered strong double digit growth figures. From a retail perspective, sales in ASICS own retail outlets increased by 44.3%.
Alistair Cameron, CEO of ASICS Europe said “Our impressive growth is reflective of ASICS’ focus on continuous improvement. We’re extremely pleased with the growth rate, which is consistent across our European markets. Also, with our market share of apparel increasing year-on-year, the brand-portfolio is strategically balanced, providing a clear indication we’re strongly positioned to achieve our ambitious targets.
“In addition, with the recent opening of our biggest European Distribution Centre (Krefeld, Germany), we’ve created a state-of-the-art facility to drive further growth across the region and reinforce our commitment to the highest qualities of customer service.”
