Karrimor is a brand of outdoor and sports equipment

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...

 and clothing. It was founded in 1946 by Charles and Mary Parsons with Grace Davies who hand-sewed cotton-duck cycle pannier bags from the upstairs of their Lancashire cycle shop.

Karrimor went on to build an international reputation for outdoor clothing, rucksacks and footwear.

The Clayton-le-Moors

Clayton-le-Moors

Clayton-le-Moors is a township in Hyndburn in Lancashire, England. The town is locally referred to as 'Clayton'. To the west lies Rishton, to the north Great Harwood, and two miles to the south, Accrington. Clayton-le-Moors is situated on the A680 road alongside the M65 motorway.-Description:It is...

, Lancashire

Lancashire

Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...

 based company was bought in 1999 by South African leisure group Cullinan Holdings which immediately cut manufacturing with the loss of 80 jobs. It had previously been acquired by 21 Invest, part of the Italian Benetton

Benetton family

Four members of the Italian Benetton family founded the Benetton Group S.p.A. fashion company in 1965. The three brothers and one sister were all born in Treviso, Veneto, Italy. Their father owned a bicycle shop...

 empire, in 1996 for £7 million

The brand went into receivership

Receivership

In law, receivership is the situation in which an institution or enterprise is being held by a receiver, a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights." The receivership remedy is an equitable remedy that emerged in...

 in 2004. Within 24 hours it was bought out by Lonsdale Sports, who broke up the company, selling the outlets and retaining only the rights to the name, which was licensed to such events as the Karrimor International Mountain Marathon

Karrimor International Mountain Marathon

The Original Mountain Marathon , formerly known as the Karrimor International Mountain Marathon , is a 2-day Mountain event, held in a different region across the UK every year. It was first held in 1968 and continues today...

.

Sports Direct

Sports Direct

Sports Direct International plc is a British retailing group. Founded in 1982 by former county squash coach Mike Ashley, the company is now the UK's largest sporting retailer through a number of retail subsidiaries and sports equipment brands. Although now a publicly traded company on the London...

, Lonsdale's parent company, now sell Karrimor branded products across all their UK stores.