RECORD sales of Speedo swimwear helped send total revenues at leisure brands group Pentland up 10 per cent last year to £1.9 billion.
The family-owned business said sales at its brands division, which also saw record performances from Lacoste Chaussures and Ted Baker footwear, jumped 11 per cent to £590 million after strong trading in countries including China, Brazil, Russia and Turkey.
Pentland owns a 57 per cent stake in JD Sports Fashion, where sales grew nine per cent to £1.3bn as the Blacks and Millets outdoor specialist bought out of administration in 2012 continues to recover.
Pre-tax profits were 36 per cent higher at £85m in 2013, having been hit in the previous year by the Blacks and Millets deal.
Pentland started out in 1932 as a shoe wholesaler in Liverpool. By the next decade the group had transformed itself into a footwear manufacturer, and in 1964 it became one of the first European companies to source shoes from Asia.
Other brands in its stable include Berghaus and Canterbury.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article