by Larry Eder
NEW BALANCE CONTINUES STRONG BRAND GROWTH
WITH FOCUS ON RUNNING AND LIFESTYLE
BOSTON, September 24, 2012 – As global athletic leader New Balance heads into fall with expectations to achieve $2.5 billion in global sales by 2013, the company announces strong sales growth among its U.S. licensed stores that signals increasing overall brand health as a result of innovative and domestically-produced products in running and lifestyle.
New Balance’s U.S. licensed stores have now seen increased year over year sales for the past 24 straight months. To date, overall licensed store sales have grown 10.5% in 2012.
“Achieving 24 months of same-store sales increases within the turbulent economic environment is very exciting. We can attribute much of this success to our best-in-class New Balance Store ownership group and our North American sales organization, says Chris Quinn, executive vice president, sales and retail for New Balance. “New Balance Store owners continue to provide an optimal sit-and-fit consumer experience and consistently leverage our key product and innovation stories.
New Balance remains focused on driving strong sales momentum across the brand’s other key distribution channels. “We have great work to do as we strive to become the number one brand in Running and better collaborate to impact not just our New Balance market share, but our retailers’ total athletic sales. We are committed to work more closely than ever with our specialty retailers as well as all of our strategic accounts and channels to earn their business and ensure we are the best possible, value-added, business partner,” says Quinn.
“Our early read for Spring 2013 is very positive. We have seen solid strength in sales of running product at our independent specialty accounts and bookings for running product in the specialty channel for the first quarter of 2013 are up 45% percent,” says Stephanie Smith, vice president of retail for New Balance.
Also contributing to brand’s overall brand health is the continued focus on New Balance’s “Let’s Make Excellent Happen” brand campaign, designed to motivate and inspire active consumers to reach a new level of personal performance – a new level of “Excellent,” as well as the strength of key running initiatives, including the launch of REVlite, a lightweight cushioning foam featured in the 890 running shoe, the NB Minimus collection and core running styles which can be replenished quickly because they are manufactured domestically.
“We see our brand connecting more than ever with younger consumers, thanks to exciting new running products such as Minimus and REVLite as well as renewed interest in our lifestyle offerings such as the 574 and Made in the USA collections,” says Quinn. “Complementing our running product mix has been the New Balance’s commitment to the high school athlete with our sponsorship of the New Balance Nationals as well as other key marquis running events.”
All 165 licensed New Balance stores in North America (148 in the U.S.) are independently owned and operated.
About New Balance
New Balance, headquartered in Boston, MA, has the following mission: Demonstrating responsible leadership, we build global brands that athletes are proud to wear, associates are proud to create and communities are proud to host. New Balance is currently the only athletic shoe company that manufactures footwear in the U.S. with 25% of our U.S. footwear shipments produced at five New England facilities. The company also operates a manufacturing facility in Flimby, U.K. New Balance employs more than 4000 associates around the globe, and in 2011 reported worldwide sales of $2.04 billion. To learn more about how New Balance Makes Excellent Happen, please visit http://www.newbalance.com.
