CEO's review, Q1/2012
”We had a solid start for the year with all business areas progressing towards their targets, with the exception of Winter Sports Equipment. I’m especially pleased by the apparel and footwear driven growth and by the rebounding of our Individual Ball Sports where we made real progress in tennis rackets. Also our emerging markets expansion continued according to plan with good growth in Russia, Latin America and China, supported by continuous investments into own retail.
Winter Sports Equipment market is somewhat depressed due to the unfavorable weather conditions and we expect declining pre-orders. However, I’m encouraged by our operational efficiency improvements in the business area.
We are continuously driving synergies and scale across the company with on-going consolidation of operations. For example, we have continued to build the category-based operations in apparel, footwear and accessories and we have brought third party distributor operations in-house in several countries. This is driving our sales and gross margin improvement but it also means continuous front-heavy operational expenses.
Looking forward, we continue to execute our strategy as we see that it’s working.”
Heikki Takala
PRESIDENT AND CEO
April 27, 2012