Amer Sports Oyj is a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

sporting goods retailer and

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

overseeing equipment brands Salomon,

Arc'teryx Arc'teryx is a Canadian high-end design company specializing in outdoor apparel and equipment headquartered in North Vancouver, Canada. It focuses on technical apparel for mountaineering and Alpine sports, including related accessories. The com ...

, Peak Performance, Atomic,

Suunto Suunto Oy is a Finnish company that manufactures and markets sports watches, dive computers, compasses and precision instruments. Headquartered in Vantaa, Finland, Suunto employs more than 300 people worldwide, and its products are sold in over ...

, Wilson, Armada, ENVE Composites,

Louisville Slugger Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

DeMarini DeMarini Sports, Inc. is an American manufacturer of sports equipment headquartered in Hillsboro, Oregon, United States. The company is known for producing baseball and softball baseball bat, bats and batting gloves.As well as getting baseball com ...

, and

Sports Tracker Sports Tracker, earlier Nokia Sports Tracker, was originally a software tool for Symbian Series 60 phones (particularly those that included a GPS facility such as the Nokia N95, or bluetooth phones with the addition of a bluetooth-compatible G ...

.Brands
on AmerSports website, 3 Oct 2019 It is a subsidiary of Chinese parent company

Anta Sports Anta Sports Products Limited is a Chinese sports equipment multinational corporation headquartered in Jinjiang. It is the world's largest purely sports equipment company by revenue and third-largest manufacturer of sporting goods overall, behind ...

. Established in 1950 as an industrial conglomerate with interests as diverse as tobacco trading, ship owning and publishing, Amer has gradually evolved into a multinational firm devoted to the production and marketing of sporting goods. The company employs over 8,000 people.

History

Industrial past

The company began life as a

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

manufacturer and distributor, Amer-Tupakka, in 1950 (later to be renamed Amer-Yhtymä Oyj followed by its current designation) and acquired the right to produce and sell Philip Morris cigarettes in Finland in 1961. In the 1960s, the significant profits from the company's tobacco interests were invested in three commercial ships. A

publishing Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

and

printing Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ea ...

division was added in 1970 with the purchase of the Finnish company Weilin+Göös, and the company listed on the

Helsinki Stock Exchange The Nasdaq Helsinki, formerly known as the Helsinki Stock Exchange ( fi, Helsingin Pörssi, sv, Helsingforsbörsen), is a stock exchange located in Helsinki, Finland. Since 3 September 2003, it has been part of Nasdaq Nordic (previously called ...

in 1977, four years after changing its name to Amer-Yhtymä ( en, Amer Group). In the 1980s, Amer moved into the vehicle import industry by acquiring the firm Korpivaara, and with it the exclusive rights to import and distribute such brands as

Citroën Citroën () is a French automobile brand. The "Automobiles Citroën" manufacturing company was founded in March 1919 by André Citroën. Citroën is owned by Stellantis since 2021 and previously was part of the PSA Group after Peugeot acquired ...

and

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

. The decade also saw the company expand into the textiles and plastics markets.

Focus on sport

In 1986, Amer established a sports division after acquiring a majority stake in the golf equipment maker

MacGregor Golf MacGregor Golf is a sports equipment manufacturing company based in Albany, Georgia, which specializes in golf. MacGregor currently produces a wide range of golf clubs, bags, and accessories. The company roots can be traced to 1829, with the est ...

from

Jack Nicklaus Jack William Nicklaus (born January 21, 1940), nicknamed The Golden Bear, is a retired American professional golfer and List of golf courses designed by Jack Nicklaus, golf course designer. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest go ...

. Despite this, the company was involved in the sports equipment market as early as 1974, when it bought the ice hockey gear maker then known as Koho-Tuote. These interests were sold in 1986. Three years later, Amer acquired the

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

-based

Wilson Sporting Goods The Wilson Sporting Goods Company is an American sports equipment manufacturer based in Chicago, Illinois. The company has been a subsidiary of Finnish multinational company Amer Sports since 1989, and is, in turn, now under the Chinese Anta Sport ...

Company, a leading producer of golf clubs, racquets and other sporting equipment, marking a major change in strategy for the company. Further acquisitions followed in the shape of the Austrian ski manufacturer Atomic in 1994 and the Finnish sports instrument maker Suunto in 1999. The American baseball and softball bat firm

Demarini DeMarini Sports, Inc. is an American manufacturer of sports equipment headquartered in Hillsboro, Oregon, United States. The company is known for producing baseball and softball baseball bat, bats and batting gloves.As well as getting baseball com ...

was purchased a year later, falling under the Wilson division. During this time, many of the business areas no longer deemed to be

core Core or cores may refer to: Science and technology * Core (anatomy), everything except the appendages * Core (manufacturing), used in casting and molding * Core (optical fiber), the signal-carrying portion of an optical fiber * Core, the centra ...

were

divested In finance and economics, divestment or divestiture is the reduction of some kind of asset for financial, ethical, or political objectives or sale of an existing business by a firm. A divestment is the opposite of an investment. Divestiture is a ...

, although the company retained its tobacco business until 2004 when it was sold back to Philip Morris. In 2005, Amer acquired the outdoor sports company Salomon from

Adidas Adidas AG (; stylized as adidas since 1949) is a German multinational corporation, founded and headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, that designs and manufactures shoes, clothing and accessories. It is the largest sportswear manufactur ...

for €485 million. In the same year, the company officially changed its name to Amer Sports Corporation. In 2019, Amer completed its divestment of Mavic. In December 2020, Amer Sport sold Precor to the American

exercise equipment Exercise equipment is any apparatus or device used during physical activity to enhance the strength or conditioning effects of that exercise by providing either fixed or adjustable amounts of resistance, or to otherwise enhance the experience or ...

manufacturer

Peloton In a road bicycle race, the peloton (from French, originally meaning 'platoon') is the main group or pack of riders. Riders in a group save energy by riding close ( drafting or slipstreaming) to (particularly behind) other riders. The reductio ...

Ownership

The company shares were listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki stock exchange. On December 7, 2018, Amer Sports announced buyout negotiations with a consortium led by

. The buyout was completed in 2019.

Operations

Amer divides its operations into four business units:

winter Winter is the coldest season of the year in polar and temperate climates. It occurs after autumn and before spring. The tilt of Earth's axis causes seasons; winter occurs when a hemisphere is oriented away from the Sun. Different cultures ...

, outdoor sports,

ball sports This is a list of ball games and ball sports that include a ball as a key element in the activity, usually for scoring points. Ball games Ball sports fall within many sport categories, some sports within multiple categories, including: *Bat-and- ...

( Wilson,

, and

). The winter and outdoor sports business segment is the largest, contributing 60% of Amer Sports' net sales in 2013. The winter and outdoor sports group includes Salomon, Atomic,

, Peak Performance,

, Armada, Enve, and Sports Tracker. The company's global

headquarters Headquarters (commonly referred to as HQ) denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the to ...

are located in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

, with manufacturing and sales locations worldwide. In 2007, Amer Sports' North American headquarters were moved from

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

to the historic American Can Company of Utah Building Complex in Ogden, Utah. On December 7, 2018, Amer Sports announced a buyout offer by a consortium led by

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. Amer's shares were valued at €4.6 billion, 40% over their average market value. Under the terms of the offer, Amer Sports will remain a separate business entity with no immediate changes in management or workforce, while Anta Sports shall provide R&D and production resources required for expansion on the Chinese market.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Manufacturing companies based in Helsinki Sporting goods manufacturers of Finland Manufacturing companies established in 1950 Multinational companies headquartered in Finland Finnish companies established in 1950 2019 mergers and acquisitions Exercise equipment companies