The Establishment of Regional Headquarters of Mizuno's European Business,
Mizuno Europe B.V.

Mizuno has established a Headquarters for its European Business, Mizuno Europe B.V. (100% Mizuno subsidiary) in Rotterdam (the Netherlands). Mizuno Europe B.V. will begin operations from 1st of January, 2021 and all European local entities will be reorganised into subsidiaries of Mizuno Europe B.V. by 2022.

When Mizuno UK Limited was established in 1982, Mizuno’s European operations took the opportunity to expand business, mainly through Golf and Running products. In recent years, the company has also focused on indoor games such as handball, and developing its apparel business through Team Apparel and other items for Competition Sports. As a result, sales from its European operations have grown to 15 billion yen. Even with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, total sales in the Golf and Running category from July to September did well: 117% when compared to the same period last year.
However, up until now Mizuno’s European operations have had a complex organisational structure, which is a mix of Mizuno’s overseas branches^*1 and Mizuno subsidiaries.^*2 This presents challenges in terms of realising faster management decisions and making management more efficient.
*1 UK, Netherlands, Germany, France, Sweden, Denmark
*2 Italy, Spain, Norway

Mizuno will take the opportunity of its establishment of Mizuno Europe B.V. to first transfer control of French branch operations to the new French subsidiary, Mizuno France SAS, in January 2021. Control of other European branch operations will be transferred to subsidiaries in 2022, with the expectation that all entities of European operations will be subsidiaries of Mizuno Europe B.V. This will promote faster management decisions and more efficient management from the perspective of total optimisation.

Comment from Mizuno Europe B.V. President, Mitsuhiro Okamoto

“In the European market, which has diverse needs, we have been highly rated by our consumers, including those for Golf and Running, especially in recent years, and I feel that our presence as a Japanese performance brand is increasing. We will use this reorganisation as an opportunity for a more direct and stronger approach to our consumers, with the aim of providing a higher quality brand experience. In addition to the Competition Sports category, we also expect to strengthen our approach to the Lifestyle market.”

Details

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