Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Luxury goods and other deals   Here are a few notable recent acquisitions and deacquistions. One common theme, at least for the first few, is an orientation toward the high-end luxury market, an area which is still growing, particularly in the US, where growth in sales of luxury goods are outpacing those in the rest of the  market   Tableware   Ireland-based Waterford Wedgewood the world’s leader maker of fine china and crystal announced it will buy competitor Royal Doulton, based in the UK. These leaders in the luxury tableware market have both been suffering due to the shrinkage of the dollar, a major market for their products. Earlier this year, Waterford Wedgewood sold its All-Clad cookware division to French kitchenware leader SEB Group, the owners of such brands as Krups and Moulinex.   Fashion   Tommy Hilfinger, the US marketer of preppy clothing, announced it will buy the rights to the luxury brand Karl Lagerfeld.   Russell Corporation announced it will buy Brooks Sports, a small but high-end maker of athletic footwear. Russell is the owner of sports equipment and apparel brands Spalding, Huffy Sports, Moving Comfort, Russell, Jerzees, and others.   Last month, Jones Apparel Group bought upscale Barney’s chain of men’s wear stores. Jones is the owner of brands Jones New York, Evan-Picone, Rena Rowan, Gloria Vanderbilt,, along with number of shoes brands, including Maxwell Shoes, Easy Spirit, and Bandolino.     Publishing   Pearson, the worldwide publishing company that owns Penguin and the Financial Times among other properties, decided to sell off its majority share in Spanish publishing group Recoletos Grupo de Comunicacion SA to a Spanish investment group. The Spanish company publishes Spain's leading sports newspaper Marca and Expansion, the leading Spanish business newspaper.   Food   Pepsico bought out the stake of General Mills in a joint venture in  selling snack foods in Europe. Snack ventures Europe, now Europe’s  largest snack company, will now be wholly owned by Pepsi.   Europe Snack Ventures sells Pepsi’s Fritos and Doritos snack lines as  well as General Mills’ Bugles. Thejoint venture also recently bought the leading Romanian snack company, Star Foods. 8:41:14 PM

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