Björn Borg takes full control of footwear category, terminates license with Serve & Volley

Björn Borg has decided to fully integrate the footwear product category after its licence partner Serve & Volley initiated reorganisation. Björn Borg now plans to handle design, development and distribution of footwear in all markets.

The company said in a statement that while the integration may imply some temporary risk for fully maintaining sales and margins, taking full control of the footwear business is expected to provide substantial future growth opportunities.

Björn Borg is now beginning the process of creating the 2025 collection in-house.

Commenting on the development, Björn Borg's CEO Henrik Bunge said: "We already have footwear distribution in both Sweden, Denmark and Finland, and now including the rest of Europe while integrating design and product development is the next natural step in our journey to build a global sports fashion brand."

The company has decided to terminate the licence agreement with Serve & Volley with immediate effect. Björn Borg expects this decision to enable increased control over quality, innovation, design and also create synergies with other product categories in distribution.

The company estimates that the Serve & Volley reorganisation process could have a negative impact of 5 million Swedish krona on earnings in 2024. However, the company also believes that the integration of the footwear product category will not negatively affect Björn Borg's ability to achieve the company's long-term financial target of at least 10 percent annual operating margin.

In 2023 the footwear product category accounted for sales for the Björn Borg Group of approximately 73 million Swedish krona and of the group's earnings (EBIT) in 2023, approximately 17 million Swedish krona was attributable to the footwear product category.