Simba Toys India Pvt. Ltd, which makes Silver Beads (Charms) World Cup mascot Stumpy, has shipped 50,000 items of merchandise featuring the little blue elephant, said Pradeep Parmar, business head.Price is also critical, with items below Rs 500 likely to move faster than those above it, said Srivastava of Yog Sports.These include soft toys, Silver/Gold Beads (Charms) bags, back packs and stationery priced at Rs 299-2,499.Brands are also focusing on streams of revenue such as airports and online sales.
"We are a German company, which wants to connect with the Indian masses," Parmar said. "What better way to do it than cricket?"HyperCity Retail (India) Ltd, which sold soccer World Cup merchandise last year, is offering T-shirts and signed bats Pandora Gold Bead at Rs 99. Interest generated by big tournaments leads to a 15-20% increase in footfalls for categories such as apparel and sportswear.
Sales usually rise 30-40% in these categories, said Ashutosh Chakradeo, head, buying, merchandising and supply chain, HyperCity. Sports, electronics, home furnishings and apparel make up 45% of the revenue at such stores."Sales (of Indian team jerseys) Pandora Silver Bead been rising every day with the World Cup," said Mukesh Bansal, chief executive of Myntra.com, an online e-commerce site specializing in sports and lifestyle products. It sells Nike India team jerseys priced at Rs 900-2,500 online.
In 2010, thousands of kids in nearly 4,000 North American Links Charms participated in the Hershey's Track & Field Games. Once again this year, the top boys and girls who advance through local, district (where applicable), and state/provincial Hershey's Track & Field Games events will be eligible to qualify for their regional team and Links Earrings an all-expense-paid trip to compete in this summer's 2011 North American Final Meet in Hershey, Pa., courtesy of The Hershey Company.
Hershey also announced the continuation of its Hershey's FastTrack to Sports Starters Guide, which includes coach's cards and skill activities, and Links Necklaces available for new local meet coordinators. Hershey's FastTrack to Sports was developed in conjunction with Carl Lewis and Athletics Canada to instruct children in the basics of track and field, which serve as the fundamentals for all sports and many everyday activities.
It was first launched in 2007 as a pilot program for the National Recreation and Park Association and is now available by registering a local meet Links Rings your community at hersheystrackandfield.com. The site also offers helpful information, materials and lesson plans that teach adults and children basic running, jumping and throwing skills.To be sitting there behind the opposing team's bench and wearing the opposing team's colors, it's going to be extremely weird."
This year, Hershey said that it is teaming up Discount Wyler the Nike Reuse-A-Shoe program, a program that collects old, worn-out athletic shoes to be recycled into Nike Grind, a material used in creating athletic and playground surfaces, as Discount Zenith as select Nike products. Program participants will be invited to bring used athletic shoes to state and provincial meets, which will then be recycled into Nike Grind.
A Hershey's Track & Field Games playground will be awarded to a participating local community as part of the program's work with Nike's Reuse-A-Shoe program. Since Links Bangles inception in the early 1990's, Nike's Reuse-A-Shoe program has recycled more than 25 million pairs of athletic shoes into Nike Grind."The Hershey Company is more committed than ever to promoting physical activity and sportsmanship among young people," said Jim George, Vice President。
Corporate Social Responsibility, The Hershey Company, and Hershey's Track & Field Games Chairman of the Board. "Working with Links Bracelets innovative Reuse-A-Shoe program, which helps kids get more involved in environmental stewardship, is a wonderful new component that will help us on our mission to create fun fitness opportunities for kids throughout North America."
ERIC TRACY, ANALYST, FBR CAPITAL MARKETS: Good N Charm and I will add my congrats as well. So, Ken, maybe if I could focus on the unit growth now, sort of expectation for next year. Obviously it changed over recent years.Maybe just sort of O Charm to that, the level of I guess lease renegotiations are playing in that decision making as well as just the overall productivity of the base. And then maybe talk about the different US versus international.
KEN HICKS: Well, in terms of -- when you first said unit growth I thought you were talking about the shoe units. In terms of the storefronts, we do P Charm growth. The majority of that growth will be in Europe as we continue to expand and fill out the opportunity that we have there in strengthening the countries that we have got a good presence in, building our share in some of the countries that we have a foothold or smaller presence.
We will open some stores in the United States but our real growth is in -- is really going to be in Europe. But there are some malls Q Charm we have opportunities to enter and we are taking advantage of those. We continue to work hard on our lease terms and making sure that we have the best lease terms. I will let Bob talk a little about what we are doing there and any specifics on the stores.
The second thing that we are seeing is our F Charm running shoes from ASICS, Nike, New Balance, people like Under Armour, they are performing well. So there is a resurgence with physical fitness and more people are running and working out. And we G Charm seeing very good success there. And if you haven't worn a pair of these lightweight running I suggest that you go out and buy a pair, because they are just great shoes.
So the running category is one that we are excited about and it's one of the reasons why we feel -- to your comment about accelerating comps -- that we feel good about this spring. Last year we were not positioned as well in running. We are much H Charm positioned with running than we were a year ago, both in terms of shoes and apparel, and that gives us an opportunity that we didn't have.
At the same time, to Bob's question, we see a strong basketball business. So you put strong basketball with running and improvement in apparel; we I Charm got a lot of legs to the stool that are working very well for us. And so we are selling those lightweight running both for runners but also for people who don't intend to run, and that has helped that category.
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