Slazenger

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Slazenger is a British sports equipment brand name sold in nearly all parts of the world involving a variety of sporting categories. Established in 1881 it can trace its roots to 1810 and today is one of the oldest surviving sporting brand names.

Contents 1 Slazengers 2 History 3 Bombs over London 4 The War Years 1939-1945 5 The Empire 6 Selling a Brand 7 Global rights and licencing

[edit] Slazengers

In 1881, and only 4 years after the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club held its first ever championships Slazengers produced 'The New Game of Lawn Tennis' complete in a box.

Slazengers were one of the dominant (wooden) racquet manufacturers in the world of their time. Over the years they produced such a wide variety of sports equipment from tennis racquets to clothing from golf equipment to rifles. But it was their bold move into tennis ball manufacturing late in the 1800s that arguably saw their greatest business achievement. Their plant in Barnsley manufactured tennis balls and exported them round the world.

In 1877 the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club revised the rules of the game and decided on a pneumatic and cloth covered ball (the first rules of 1875 had only stipulated 'that the balls be hollow and made of India rubber...balls covered in white cloth shall be used in fine weather.').

In 1902 Slazengers were appointed as the official tennis ball supplier to The Championships, Wimbledon, and so began the longest unbroken sporting sponsorship in history. In 1877 there were 22 entries and 180 tennis balls were used, at the 1939 Championships there were 531 entries and 8,352 Slazenger Lawn Tennis Balls were used, by 2005 there were 668 entries and a staggering 52,000 Slazenger Lawn Tennis Balls were used.

[edit] History

In the heyday of Queen Victoria's reign three manufacturing firms were founded in the 1870's and 1880's by Albert and Ralph Slazenger, William Sykes and Harry Gradidge each originally manufacturing for the increasingly popular pastimes of the day - lawn tennis, football (soccer) and cricket.

But it was some 50 years or so earlier that the forerunner to them all had been established - The House of Ayres. This company had begun life in 1810 by Edward Ayres, five years before the Battle of Waterloo. First established in Clerkenwell, England initially as a cabinet maker and wood turner for the production of indoor games only he soon developed a wider range of outdoor sporting goods as well.

World War II and the crisis of 1940, namely the bombing of England, was the catalyst that brought the four companies together: known after 1940 as the Slazengers Sykes Gradidge and Ayres Group of Companies.

[edit] Bombs over London

On 15 September 1940 during a heavy air raid on London, incendiary bombs fell on the Slazenger factory. Thousands of tennis racquet frames and other sporting equipment were lost in the tremendous fire that followed. The Gradidge factory in Woolwich also suffered similar fate. The Sykes factory located at Horbury was undamaged by the bombings, and although Slazenger and Gradidge were able to continue production at other centres it was perhaps a sign of the times that the four companies decided to pool their resources and form an association to work for the nations war effort and then ultimately in peace time, when it came, produce a volume of sporting equipment of such quality that would be unrivalled anywhere at the time. Henceforth was the company known as Slazengers Sykes Gradidge and Ayres.

[edit] The War Years 1939-1945

Probably a little known fact was the Slazengers Sykes Gradidge and Ayres contribution to the war effort (World War II). With government contracts in hand the company set about manufacturing a wide variety of items for use during the war. Mainly utilising their expertise in wood manufacturing the company produced many various items. The following lists just a small snapshot of some of their larger contracts completed for H.M Government in the years 1939-1945, as recorded by Slazengers, Gradidge, Sykes and Ayres in 1946:

Larger Completed War Contracts
Rifle Furniture - No.4, Mark 1	858,500 sets. Each set comprising: 1 Butt, 1 Forestock, 1 each Handguard (front and rear)
	95,222 butts
	150,000 forestocks
	200,000 hand guard, front
	200,000 hand guard, rear
Lanchester SMG Machine Gun Carbine Butts	80,000
Stoppers, Leak - Wooden	430,000
Bayonet, No. 5, Mark 1, Grips, left and right hand	466,500
Stoppers, Leak - Wooden	430,000
Detonator Caps	17,500,000
Standard Snow and Sand Goggles	3,000,000
Gloves, M.T (Motor Transport)	280,335 pairs
Gloves, Workman U.S Forces	122,450 pairs
Gloves, Boxing, 8oz, laced	22,239 pairs
Gloves, Boxing, 8oz, elastic	19,394 pairs
Machetes, 15inch Blade Sheaths	250,400

[edit] The Empire

In its heyday the empire of Slazengers Gradidge Sykes and Ayres stretched across the world with either licensed distributors or agents and/or manufacturing operations in which the company had partnerships or licensing agreements with. Distributors were flung far and wide as far away as New Zealand and Africa and even in remote places such as Iceland, Newfoundland, Madagascar and even Bolivia.

[edit] Selling a Brand

Over the years there has been a number of owners of the Slazenger company. It is probably fair to say that technology and China played a major part in the rise and fall of this famous brand. In the days when wooden tennis racquets held no peer brands such as Slazenger were a dominant force in the world.

With the popularity of the metal tennis racket from the early 1980s and then the fast transition to even more popular composite materials such as fiberglass, graphite, Kevlar and so on more and more brands became available to the consumer. These 'new' brands were more popular than the old, historic brands such as Slazenger. Add to this the rise in the quality of these products being produced and far cheaper in the East than anywhere else, Slazenger no longer could hold favour with the public. The brand slowly fell from grace, and as a result it became a target of companies who saw a future by having such an iconic brand in their stable.

• 1985 The Slazenger company is purchased by the BTR company (now Invensys) along with another famous sporting brand company, Dunlop Sport to form a new and for a number of years, quite successful company called Dunlop Slazenger.
  

• 1996 BTR sell its stake in Dunlop Slazenger in a MBO (management buyout) for £300million - the buyout was backed by investment company CINVen.
  

• 2004 CINVen sells Dunlop Slazenger to Sports World International for a reported £40million. Sports World International one of the fastest-growing companies in sports retailing, owns some of the biggest British sports brands - Slazenger, Dunlop, Carlton, Donnay and Lonsdale. In July 2005 they also took a major stake in Umbro.

[edit] Global rights and licencing

With the purchase of Slazenger by Sports World International did not come the global rights to the brand. Rights to the Slazenger brand is in fact controlled by international borders in a sense. In the Pacific, Slazenger is licensed by Pacific Brands with full and exclusive rights to sell and distribute throughout the Pacific Basin and through Asia excluding Japan. In America the brand is owned by the Dunlop Slazenger Group Inc.

Internationally there has been a move by many of the owners of some of the most famous FMCG's (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) not to diversify internally and thus strain their own resources and finances, but to license the brand to almost anyone who wants to use it. In Slazenger the same has been achieved - over the years and even today Slazenger has been licensed and seen on a wide range of products not actually made, designed or even distributed by the actual owner. Slazenger has appeared and does appear on sunglasses, toiletries, push bikes and so on. It is no longer the tennis racquet brand it started out as.