Wilson to Distribute Luxilon
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Melanie McGeough
8700 W. Bryn Mawr
Chicago,
773-714-6703
MMcGeough@wilson.com
11/11/05 - Chicago--Wilson Racquet Sports, the No. 1 brand in tennis, and its parent company Amer Sports have partnered with Luxilon Sports to serve as the exclusive world-wide distributor of their monofilament strings and other products beginning in 2006. Luxilon, a Belgium-based, leading monofilament string company, is used by more than 800 tour players worldwide and is the official string of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) and WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) Tour and the Official Stringer at several key international events.
“Our partnership with Luxilon gives Wilson the opportunity to leverage the strength of both brands at retail, with the players and an opportunity to help them grow their global business. Our extensive global distribution network through the Wilson and Amer Sports subsidiaries and distributors will play a major role in both companies future success.” Brian Dillman, Vice President for Wilson Racquet Sports, said.
Wilson will obtain the international distribution rights of all their branded products, which include tennis, badminton and squash string to Wilson. Luxilon’s portfolio includes official string designation of both professional tennis tours and as the Official Stringer of signature international events including the NASDAQ 100, China Open, Tennis Masters Cup, ATP Junior Gold and the Luxilon Junior Cup.
The Luxilon string designations fit with Wilson’s current strategic initiatives to increase its stringing presence at professional and amateur tennis tournaments worldwide beginning with an announcement last week of their partnership with the United States Tennis Association (USTA) to become the Official Stringer at the US Open beginning in 2006.
“Wilson and Amer Sports offer an established global distribution network and concentrated sales force that gives a new opportunity to focus on growing the Luxilon string brand, “Bob Daelemans, Managing Director of the Luxilon Brand, said.
The Luxilon portfolio includes high-tech string product lines such as BIG BANGER®, which is used by more than 60 percent of the ATP Top 100 players and approximately 30 percent of the WTA Top 100 players. Luxilon will continue to manage the string business in brand strategy, promotions and product development under the direction of Mr. Bob Daelmans.
“The partnership of our leading brands creates a unique synergy that symbolizes a wealth of growth opportunities for both of our businesses together,” Nico Van Malderen, Owner of Luxilon Sports N.V. said. “We are looking forward to this transition of integrating the Luxilon brand into Wilson’s sales force and will do everything to support their efforts.”
Wilson Racquet Sports is a division of Chicago-based Wilson Sporting Goods, one of the world's leading manufacturers of sports equipment and owned by Amer Sports. Wilson designs, manufactures and distributes sporting goods throughout the world and focuses on making technologically advanced products which help all players play better. Wilson's core sport categories include: Football, Basketball, Baseball, Volleyball, Soccer, Youth Sports, Uniforms/Apparel, Golf, Footwear and Racquet Sports (Tennis, Racquetball, Squash, Badminton and Platform Tennis). For more information, visit www.wilson.com.
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Links:
www.wilsontennis.com
