Amer Sports
Encyclopedia
Amer Sports Oyj is the largest manufacturer of sporting equipment
in the world. Established in 1950, the company is based in Helsinki
, Finland
. Initially an industrial conglomerate
with interests as diverse as shipowning, tobacco products and publishing, Amer has gradually evolved into a multinational
firm devoted to the production and marketing of sporting goods. Today, the company employs approximately 6,300 people and owns a portfolio of sports brands including Wilson
, Atomic
, Suunto
, Precor USA
and Salomon
.
manufacturer and distributor, Amer-Tupakka, in 1950 and acquired the right to produce and sell Philip Morris
cigarettes in Finland in 1961. In the 1960s, the significant profits from the company's tobacco interests were invested in three commercial ships. A publishing
and printing
division was added in 1970 with the purchase of the Finnish company Weilin+Göös, and the company listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange
in 1977, four years after changing its name to Amer-Yhtymä (Amer Group). In the 1980s Amer moved into the vehicle import industry by acquiring the firm Korpivaara, and with it the exclusive rights to import and distribute such brands as Citroën
and Toyota. The decade also saw the company expand into the textiles and plastics markets.
from Jack Nicklaus
. Despite this, the company was involved in the sports equipment market as early as 1974, when it bought over the hockey gear maker then known as Koho-Tuote
. These interests were sold in 1986. Three years later, Amer acquired the Chicago
-based Wilson Sporting Goods Company, a leading producer of golf clubs, racquets and other sporting equipment, marking a major change in strategy for the company. Further acquisitions followed in the shape of the Austrian ski manufacturer Atomic in 1994 and the Finnish sports instrument maker Suunto in 1999. The American baseball and softball bat firm Demarini
was purchased a year later, falling under the Wilson division. During this time, many of the business areas no longer deemed to be core
were divested
, although the company retained its tobacco business until 2004 when it was sold back to Philip Morris. In 2005, Amer acquired the outdoor sports company Salomon from Adidas
for €485 million. In the same year, the company officially changed its name to Amer Sports Corporation.
and outdoor sports, ball sports
(consisting simply of Wilson
) and fitness
(of which all products carry the Precor USA brand). The winter and outdoor business segment is the largest, contributing 58% of Amer Sports' revenue in 2010. The group produces products under seven flagship brands: Salomon
, Wilson, Precor, Suunto
, Atomic
, Mavic
and Arc'teryx
(the latter two having previously been subsidiaries
of Salomon when under the ownership of Adidas
). Other smaller brands held by the group include Volant
and DeMarini
.
The company's global headquarters
are located in Helsinki
, Finland
, with manufacturing and sales locations worldwide. Amer's North American headquarters were moved from Portland, Oregon
to a location in Ogden, Utah
in 2007.
Sports equipment
Sports equipment is a general term for any object used for sport or exercise. Examples of sports equipment include:-Exercise equipment:Examples for exercise include swiss balls, weights, equipment for the gym...
in the world. Established in 1950, the company is based in Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
. Initially an industrial conglomerate
Conglomerate (company)
A conglomerate is a combination of two or more corporations engaged in entirely different businesses that fall under one corporate structure , usually involving a parent company and several subsidiaries. Often, a conglomerate is a multi-industry company...
with interests as diverse as shipowning, tobacco products and publishing, Amer has gradually evolved into a multinational
Multinational corporation
A multi national corporation or enterprise , is a corporation or an enterprise that manages production or delivers services in more than one country. It can also be referred to as an international corporation...
firm devoted to the production and marketing of sporting goods. Today, the company employs approximately 6,300 people and owns a portfolio of sports brands including Wilson
Wilson Sporting Goods
The Wilson Sporting Goods Company is a sports equipment manufacturer based in Chicago, Illinois, and currently is a foreign subsidiary of the Finnish company Amer Sports....
, Atomic
Atomic Skis
Atomic is an Austrian company which manufactures and sells skiing equipment .-Background:...
, Suunto
Suunto
Suunto Oy, based in Finland, is a company that produces and markets sports precision instruments for Diving, Training and Outdoor sports. Headquartered in Vantaa, Suunto employs more than 500 people worldwide, and its products are sold in over 100 countries...
, Precor USA
Precor USA
Precor USA is a manufacturer of fitness equipment for home and commercial uses. Paul J. Byrne is the president of Precor USA. The corporate headquarters of Precor USA is located in Woodinville, Washington, and is a brand name of the Amer Sports corporation....
and Salomon
Salomon Group
The Salomon Group is a sports equipment manufacturing company that originated in Annecy, France. The company was started in 1947 by François Salomon and his wife and son. In 1997 it became part of the Adidas group. On 2 May 2005, Adidas-Salomon announced that it had agreed to sell the Salomon...
.
Industrial past
The company began life as a tobaccoTobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
manufacturer and distributor, Amer-Tupakka, in 1950 and acquired the right to produce and sell Philip Morris
Altria Group
Altria Group, Inc. is based in Henrico County, Virginia, and is the parent company of Philip Morris USA, John Middleton, Inc., U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company, Inc., Philip Morris Capital Corporation, and Chateau Ste. Michelle Wine Estates. It is one of the world's largest tobacco corporations...
cigarettes in Finland in 1961. In the 1960s, the significant profits from the company's tobacco interests were invested in three commercial ships. A publishing
Publishing
Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...
and printing
Printing
Printing is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing....
division was added in 1970 with the purchase of the Finnish company Weilin+Göös, and the company listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange
Helsinki Stock Exchange
The Helsinki Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in Helsinki, Finland. Since 3 September 2003 it has been part of OMX, referred to as OMX Helsinki . Since NASDAQ's acquisition of OMX in February 2008, the official name of the Helsinki exchange has been NASDAQ OMX Helsinki.- History :The...
in 1977, four years after changing its name to Amer-Yhtymä (Amer Group). In the 1980s Amer moved into the vehicle import industry by acquiring the firm Korpivaara, and with it the exclusive rights to import and distribute such brands as Citroën
Citroën
Citroën is a major French automobile manufacturer, part of the PSA Peugeot Citroën group.Founded in 1919 by French industrialist André-Gustave Citroën , Citroën was the first mass-production car company outside the USA and pioneered the modern concept of creating a sales and services network that...
and Toyota. The decade also saw the company expand into the textiles and plastics markets.
Focus on sport
In 1986 Amer established a sports division after acquiring a majority stake in the golf equipment maker MacGregor GolfMacGregor Golf
MacGregor Golf is a sports equipment company based in Albany, Georgia which specializes in golf, producing a full range of golf clubs, accessories and clothing....
from Jack Nicklaus
Jack Nicklaus
Jack William Nicklaus , nicknamed "The Golden Bear", is an American professional golfer. He won 18 career major championships on the PGA Tour over a span of 25 years and is widely regarded as one of the greatest professional golfers of all time. In addition to his 18 Majors, he was runner-up a...
. Despite this, the company was involved in the sports equipment market as early as 1974, when it bought over the hockey gear maker then known as Koho-Tuote
Koho (company)
Koho is a brand of ice hockey equipment that originated from Finland. Currently, Koho equipment is manufactured by The Hockey Company . Koho is especially known for its goaltending equipment...
. These interests were sold in 1986. Three years later, Amer acquired the Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
-based Wilson Sporting Goods Company, a leading producer of golf clubs, racquets and other sporting equipment, marking a major change in strategy for the company. Further acquisitions followed in the shape of the Austrian ski manufacturer Atomic in 1994 and the Finnish sports instrument maker Suunto in 1999. The American baseball and softball bat firm Demarini
Demarini
DeMarini Sports, Inc. is a manufacturer of baseball bats and other sports equipment headquartered in Hillsboro, Oregon, United States. The company is known for producing baseball and softball bats with innovations that provide enhanced hitting power.-History:...
was purchased a year later, falling under the Wilson division. During this time, many of the business areas no longer deemed to be core
Core business
The core business of an organization is an idealized construct intended to express that organization's "main" or "essential" activity.The corporate trend in the mid-20th Century of acquiring new enterprises and forming conglomerates enabled corporations to reduce costs funds and similar investment...
were divested
Divestment
In finance and economics, divestment or divestiture is the reduction of some kind of asset for either financial or ethical objectives or sale of an existing business by a firm...
, although the company retained its tobacco business until 2004 when it was sold back to Philip Morris. In 2005, Amer acquired the outdoor sports company Salomon from Adidas
Adidas
Adidas AG is a German sports apparel manufacturer and parent company of the Adidas Group, which consists of the Reebok sportswear company, TaylorMade-Adidas golf company , and Rockport...
for €485 million. In the same year, the company officially changed its name to Amer Sports Corporation.
Operations
Amer divides its operations into three business units: winterWinter sport
A winter sport is a sport which is played on snow or ice. Most such sports are variations of skiing, ice skating and sledding. Traditionally such sports were only played in cold areas during winter, but artificial snow and ice allow more flexibility...
and outdoor sports, ball sports
Ball game
In American English, ball game refers specifically to either a game of basketball, baseball or American football. In British English ball game refers to any sport played with a ball....
(consisting simply of Wilson
Wilson Sporting Goods
The Wilson Sporting Goods Company is a sports equipment manufacturer based in Chicago, Illinois, and currently is a foreign subsidiary of the Finnish company Amer Sports....
) and fitness
Physical fitness
Physical fitness comprises two related concepts: general fitness , and specific fitness...
(of which all products carry the Precor USA brand). The winter and outdoor business segment is the largest, contributing 58% of Amer Sports' revenue in 2010. The group produces products under seven flagship brands: Salomon
Salomon Group
The Salomon Group is a sports equipment manufacturing company that originated in Annecy, France. The company was started in 1947 by François Salomon and his wife and son. In 1997 it became part of the Adidas group. On 2 May 2005, Adidas-Salomon announced that it had agreed to sell the Salomon...
, Wilson, Precor, Suunto
Suunto
Suunto Oy, based in Finland, is a company that produces and markets sports precision instruments for Diving, Training and Outdoor sports. Headquartered in Vantaa, Suunto employs more than 500 people worldwide, and its products are sold in over 100 countries...
, Atomic
Atomic Skis
Atomic is an Austrian company which manufactures and sells skiing equipment .-Background:...
, Mavic
Mavic
Mavic is a French bicycle parts manufacturer, its name an acronym for Manufacture d'Articles Vélocipédiques Idoux et Chanel, founded by Charles Idoux and Lucien Chanel. The company is noted as a manufacturer of bicycle wheels. Mavic is based in Annecy, France...
and Arc'teryx
Arc'teryx
Arc'teryx is an outdoor clothing and sporting goods company founded in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in 1989. The name and logo of Arc'teryx refer to the Archaeopteryx, the earliest known bird...
(the latter two having previously been subsidiaries
Subsidiary
A subsidiary company, subsidiary, or daughter company is a company that is completely or partly owned and wholly controlled by another company that owns more than half of the subsidiary's stock. The subsidiary can be a company, corporation, or limited liability company. In some cases it is a...
of Salomon when under the ownership of Adidas
Adidas
Adidas AG is a German sports apparel manufacturer and parent company of the Adidas Group, which consists of the Reebok sportswear company, TaylorMade-Adidas golf company , and Rockport...
). Other smaller brands held by the group include Volant
Volant skis
Volant is a brand of ski equipment, currently owned by Amer Sports. It was founded as an independent company in the USA, by brothers Hank and Bucky Kashiwa in 1989...
and DeMarini
Demarini
DeMarini Sports, Inc. is a manufacturer of baseball bats and other sports equipment headquartered in Hillsboro, Oregon, United States. The company is known for producing baseball and softball bats with innovations that provide enhanced hitting power.-History:...
.
The company's global headquarters
Headquarters
Headquarters denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the top of a corporation taking full responsibility managing all business activities...
are located in Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, with manufacturing and sales locations worldwide. Amer's North American headquarters were moved from Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
to a location in Ogden, Utah
Ogden, Utah
Ogden is a city in Weber County, Utah, United States. Ogden serves as the county seat of Weber County. The population was 82,825 according to the 2010 Census. The city served as a major railway hub through much of its history, and still handles a great deal of freight rail traffic which makes it a...
in 2007.