Goool.de
Goool.de was a German brand of Goool.de Sportswear GmbH for sport and leisure clothing as well as for sporting goods; especially for team sports (so-called "teamware"). The company belonged to the corporate group of the Bundesliga soccer club Borussia Dortmund (BVB).
Business formation and ownership
In the years 2000 to 2008, BVB was the first and so far only club in the German Bundesliga to try to establish its own brand of sportswear that competed against industry giants such as Adidas , Puma and Nike . The company Goool.de Sportswear had sportswear (especially soccer team jerseys and training clothing) as well as gloves, balls and similar sporting goods manufactured and sold.
With the founding of the club's own Goool.de Sportswear GmbH based in Dortmund and the start of sales on May 25, 2000, the managing directors Willi Kühne (then head of merchandising) and Michael Meier (then manager of the professional team) combined the hope of generating sales outside of Germany of pure gaming operations to become more independent of the sporting success of the licensed player department. A later IPO of the subsidiary was planned.
Goool.de Sportswear GmbH has always been 100% owned by Borussia Dortmund GmbH & Co. KGaA through BVB Stadion GmbH (formerly Westfalenstadion Dortmund GmbH & Co. KG) and BVB Beteiligungs-GmbH.
Selling the brand
In the course of the restructuring of the financially troubled parent company BVB, the “Goool.de” brand was sold to the Cologne-based Gerling insurance group on September 20, 2000 , and parts of the Borussia trademark rights were deposited as security. He rented it back to Borussia Dortmund KGaA for an annual license fee of 1.47 million euros.
(See also sale-and-lease-back business)
The restructuring concept and the business conduct inside and outside the BVB company was legally controversial, was hotly debated in investor and fan circles and a. later for the retirement of the then BVB president and chairman of the management of the limited partnership Gerd Niebaum and the manager Michael Meier.
Sales figures and profitability
In the 2001/2002 season, Goool.de recorded sales of 4.9 million euros and a profit of 110,600 euros, according to a report by the sports magazine Kicker . The 2005/2006 financial year ended with a loss of 1.3 million euros.
BVB's own Bundesliga team was equipped by Goool.de from July 1, 2000 to June 30, 2004. From the 2004/2005 season, however, Borussia Dortmund was again equipped by Nike (as it had been from 1990 to June 2000).
At times it was also possible to equip other football clubs with sportswear from Goool.de. However, these were lower-class clubs, for example SCB Viktoria Köln (formerly SCB Preussen Köln) from the Oberliga Nordrhein in 2002 or Kickers Offenbach from the Regionalliga Süd / 2nd Bundesliga from July 1, 2004 to June 30, 2008 and 1. FC Dynamo Dresden from Regionalliga Nord / 2. Bundesliga from July 1, 2002 to June 30, 2005.
For a short time goool.de was also represented in ice hockey and curling. The German national ice hockey team wore from October 2003 to May 2005 outside the field of clothing goool.de; of EHC Dortmund in 2006/2007. The German Curling Association was equipped by goool.de from April 1, 2004 to July 30, 2005.
Cessation of business operations
At no time did the company succeed in meeting the original expectations and gaining noteworthy market shares in the German sportswear industry. Even the attempt to establish itself in the low budget market did not produce any significant results.
In 2006 the company goool.de Sportswear GmbH started business again by raising part of the sum to buy back the stadium rights.
The business operations of goool.de Sportswear GmbH ( formulated precisely in legal terms: with the restriction to "as far as the manufacture and sale of sports and leisure clothing was concerned" ) was discontinued on June 30, 2008. On 13 June 2008 took place in the commercial register the change of name to BVB Stadion Holding GmbH. The domain www.goool.de is now orphaned.
Web links
- BVB goool jersey from the 2001/2002 season
- goool jersey from Dynamo Dresden from the 2001/2002 season
Individual evidence
- ↑ Borussia Dortmund becomes a textile manufacturer ; Die Welt, May 15, 2000
- ↑ Investor Relations / Investments ; borussia-aktie.de ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Fans indignant: Meier pledged club names ; kicker.de, February 3, 2005
- ↑ 20 million euros from Nike? , kicker.de, March 18, 2003
- ^ Report from the 2006 Annual General Meeting on November 28, 2006 ; schwatzgelb.de ( Memento of the original from January 7, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ BVB back at Nike ; kicker.de, August 1, 2003
- ↑ BVB in distress again ; Wirtschaftswoche, May 12, 2006
- ↑ Information about BVB Stadion Holding GmbH on borussia-aktie.de ( Memento of the original from July 30, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
