Ski business on slippery slopes to consolidation

AS IN the lift queues at the bottom of Europe's pistes, the elbows are out in the global ski industry.

The takeover approach by US surfwear giant Quiksilver to France's Skis Rossignol is but the latest consolidation move in a stagnating industry.

Although Quiksilver has for now been rebuffed, the amalgamation of the world's biggest ski-maker within a diversified sports equipment group looks inevitable. Last summer, K2, like Quiksilver a Californian company with over $1bn (£53m) a year of sales, bought two of the best brands in ski equipment, Volkl and Marker.

K2, whose brand is already America's biggest-selling budget skiwear range, snapped up Germany's Volkl Holdings, whose skis sell for $500 a pair and up, and Marker, a ski bindings maker, from Italy's Tecnica, paying $124m for assets with $170m of sales.

Tecnica, meantime, bought the Nordica boot brand from Benetton for $38m, then added Benetton's Rollerblade in-line skate-maker for another €20m (£14m).

An icebound global market of 4.3m pairs of skis a year has seen Rossignol sales fall three years in a row. Adidas-Salomon, the number two, is cutting costs, moving some ski production to Romania and snowboard making to China.

Meanwhile, Head, the New York-quoted group that makes skis, snowboards, tennis racquets and diving gear, recorded a $37m loss in the first nine months as it too restructures.