Roger Federer-backed On Holding said on Tuesday its co-CEO Marc Maurer has decided to depart after 12 years with the Switzerland-based sportswear company.
Mark Maurer – On
On said it will transition to a single-CEO structure, with current co-CEO and Chief Financial Officer Martin Hoffmann taking the helm effective July 1, 2025. Hoffmann would continue as CFO while the company looks for a new finance head.
Maurer will stay in his role until June 30 and will continue to advise the co-founders of the company, David Allemann and Caspar Coppetti, as well as the board until March 2026.
Under Maurer and Hoffmann, On went public in 2021, and its running shoes have become customer favorites, challenging rivals and taking market share from sportswear giants such as Nike and Adidas.
In March, On topped fourth-quarter sales and profit expectations as its brand awareness initiatives helped drive strong holiday demand for its shoes and sportswear offerings.
It has benefited from efforts to expand its product lines at retailers such as Foot Locker and Dick’s Sporting Goods, while also doubling down on its own stores to boost sales.
Circulose (formerly Renewcell), a Swedish specialist in the recycling of plant and cellulose fibers, has found a major outlet in Tangshan Sanyou, one of the world’s leading cellulose fiber manufacturers, which is looking to expand its circular materials offering.
Circulose
Alongside Austria’s Lenzing, India’s Birla and China’s Sateri, Tangshan Sanyou is one of the world’s leading producers of fibers derived from the chemical conversion of plant products, starting with wood. The group claims to produce 830,000 tons of fiber a year and is counting on Circulose to feed the production of its Revisco recycled fiber.
“This is a crucial step in our global expansion strategy, fostering closer and deeper collaborations with innovative fiber producers and like-minded brands,” said Circulose CEO Jonatan Janmark. “As the first major strategic partnership since Circulose’s restructuring, this collaboration will be the cornerstone of our success.”
“Tangshan Sanyou has always believed in the strong potential of recycling cotton textile waste, which is essential to fostering a green and sustainable industry,” said Zhang Dongbin, executive vice president of Tangshan Sanyou Chemical Fiber. “We have unwavering confidence in Circulose’s business potential and new strategic direction, and we look forward to our future collaboration.”
Mostly made from chemically transformed wood pulp, cellulosic fibers account for around 6% of fibers produced worldwide. This makes it the third most produced fiber behind polyester and cotton. The cellulosic industry is counting on the stagnation of agricultural land allocated to cotton to gain market share.
JD Sports Fashion had plenty of news Wednesday beyond its trading update with the retail giant also outlining its medium-term strategy and warning of volatile trading.
In an interview, its chairman Andrew Higginson also criticised the uncertainty created by President Trump’s trade war and said that prices could rise. But he ruled out moving production to the US.
Speaking to the BBC, he said producing goods in many of the key countries where items such as trainers are made isn’t just about cheap labour but about the expertise and investment that’s gone into the technology and manufacturing capabilities.
The numbers
So, let’s look at what happened in FY25 and specifically in JD’s fourth quarter.
Without giving many monetary values ahead of its final full-year results announcement, the company said organic revenue growth was 5.8% in FY25, slightly ahead of previous guidance with strong growth from North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.
Profit before tax and adjusting items was “in line with” the January guidance of £915 million to £935 million.
Trading in the two months to the end of March — the start of FY26 — has met expectations. But while FY26 profit guidance should also match analysts’ expectations, it “excludes any potential impact from changes to tariffs”. So that’s a big potential dark cloud hanging over the business.
The Q4 trading update part of the announcement — for the 13 weeks to 1 February — said that “in a challenging market, Q425 [like-for-like/LFL] revenue growth was 0.3% with organic revenue growth of 5.6%, driven by a strong performance in Europe”. For the full year, LFL revenue growth was also 0.3%, in line with its previous guidance of “broadly flat”.
Looking at Q4 revenue in more detail, on an LFL basis in the UK it was down 1.2% but it rose 0.8% organic. It was up 3.5% LFL and 11.4% organic in Europe and down 1.5% LFL but up 3.9% organic in North America. In Asia Pacific it was up 2.2% and 11.4%.
For the full year, the UK was down 2.5% LFL and 0.7% organic while Europe rose 2.7% and 10.5%, respectively. North America was up 0.8% and 7.5%, while Asia-Pacific was down 0.1% LFL but up 9.5% organic.
It said its recent acquisitions, Hibbett (in the US) and Courir (in France), traded “in line with our expectations in the period”.
Gross margin for the year was 47.8%, 20 basis points below the previous year due to the impact from the acquisitions.
Looking ahead
The company believes the trading environment in key markets will be volatile this year but can’t yet say just how volatile.
Its total revenue will grow, both due to the acquisitions made in FY25 (which will add around 10%), and the contribution from brand new space of around 4%. That said, LFL revenues are predicted to fall compared to FY25.
The company also talked of higher costs during this financial year linked to things like a higher proportion of IT investment falling into operating expenditure as opposed to capital expenditure and higher UK National Insurance contributions. Partially offsetting these increases will be cost savings, scale efficiencies and integration synergies in North America following the Hibbett acquisition.
As for the firm’s update about its medium-term strategy, there was little to surprise anyone there, although it’s reducing investment, consolidating its position in key markets and prioritising shareholder returns.
CEO Régis Schultz said it operates in an attractive, long-term growth market and is well positioned to continue growing market share, with strong brand relationships and an agile, multi-brand model.
He added that “we have made significant strategic progress over the last two years: we have accelerated the growth of the JD brand, particularly in North America and Europe; we have continued building a global sports fashion powerhouse through the acquisitions of Hibbett and Courir, taking full ownership of ISRG in Iberia and MIG in Eastern Europe, and disposing of around 30 non-core businesses; we have upgraded our global supply chain; and we have built the required infrastructure and governance for a group of our scale.
“Reflecting slower market growth and the investments we have made in our supply chain and infrastructure, we are updating our medium-term plans to capitalise on our organic growth opportunities in North America and Europe, deliver productivity and efficiency benefits from the investments and utilise our strong cash generation to deliver improved returns for our shareholders.”
What will this mean in practice? It’s “evolving medium-term plans to focus on growth, profitability and improved returns”. In North America it will leverage “our multi-fascia customer proposition to grow ahead of the market and improve our return on space”; in Europe it will “improve profitability by focusing on key markets and delivering European supply chain investment benefit”, while accelerating growth of the Courir brand; and in the UK specifically it aims to “stabilise and improve productivity”.
Capex will “trend from 5% to 3%-3.5% of revenue, reflecting the end of our heightened investment phase”. And with its 20% non-controlling interest in Genesis, the holding company for its North American business, it’s deferring taking outright control until later this decade rather than starting from this year.
The French leather sector closed out 2024 on solid footing, recording a trade surplus of €5.5 billion. While imports totaled €13.7 billion for the year, exports increased by 1% to reach €19.2 billion, according to the Alliance France Cuir Economic Observatory.
Alliance France Cuir – DR
France retained its position as the world’s fourth-largest leather exporter in 2023, behind China, Italy, and Vietnam. It accounted for 6.4% of global leather exports.
However, growth remained modest in 2024, partly due to stable exports to China—France’s largest customer—a slight 1% increase in exports to the United States, and a 2% decline in shipments to Italy. China and the U.S. together accounted for more than a quarter of total French leather exports.
Exports to Japan surged 237% year-on-year, while shipments to South Korea rose 14%. In contrast, exports to Hong Kong fell 9%, and those to Singapore dropped sharply by 49%.
In Europe, France saw slight export declines to Germany (-5%) and the UK (-2%), while exports to Spain grew by 2%.
Leather goods continued to dominate the French leather industry’s exports, representing two-thirds of the total. In 2024, leather goods exports rose 2% to €13 billion. Leather apparel followed, up 13% to €260.4 million. Footwear, accounting for 28% of exports, dipped slightly by 1%, while raw material exports fell by 5%.
After a surge in imports in 2021 and 2022 during the post-pandemic rebound, France’s leather imports stabilized at around €13.7 billion in 2023 and 2024. European countries made up 49% of the total, or €6.7 billion, while Asia accounted for 47%, or €6.5 billion.
“Imports from Africa and the Americas remain marginal,” noted the Observatory, which confirmed that Italy and China remain France’s top leather suppliers.
*Source: French Customs, Economic Observatory of the Alliance France Cuir.
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