Sergio Tacchini
Sergio Tacchini [ sɛrdʒo takki ː ni ] (* May 30, 1938 ) is an Italian former tennis player.
Tacchini is known in particular for the created by him and named after his full name sports fashion brand, which is since 2008 owned by a Chinese trading company since the 1960s.
Sports career
Tacchini began in the late 1950s with the professional tennis. In 1960, he won against Nicola Pietrangeli the Italian league titles in singles, with Pietrangeli as a partner he later won two Italian league titles in doubles. After he had participated first time in 1959 for the Italian team at the Davis Cup, he entered for the selection to end of his career in 1968 in a total of seven finals at.
During his active career Tacchini founded in 1966 under the name Sandys a fashion company, whose clothing was immediately sold under the name of the founder. In the following years, the Sergio Tacchini SpA developed become a significant supplier of tennis, of which sponsorship deals with personalities such as Ilie Năstase, John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Martina Navratilova, Martina Hingis ( sued the company in 2001 due to damages allegedly defective shoes), Gabriela Sabatini, Pete Sampras or Novak Djokovic ( Contract 2012 terminated prematurely ) testified. The company made its colored sport clothes for attention, as far as the 1970s in tennis mainly monochrome white clothes had been standard.
In the 1980s, the company expanded its product range in the field of tennis equipment for the entire family ( for example, shoes, bags, accessories ), joined also present in other sports and equipped to fit sportsmen like the Formula 1 driver Ayrton Senna, the skier Marc Girardelli or the golfer Ian Woosnam from. From 1987 different fragrances were offered (from 1998 also for women) and aftershave from Sergio Tacchini. The North American market was opened on licensees. Opened in 1991 in Turin, the first Sergio Tacchini store its doors; until the late 1990s, there were about 200 Sergio Tacchini boutiques in Europe. In 1996, Sergio Tacchini official supplier of the Italian team at the Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. From 2009 to 2013, Sergio Tacchini was the official sponsor of the ball boys and girls as well as the technical staff of the Monte Carlo Masters.
After facing increased competition from global players such as Nike, Puma or Adidas, a far-reaching limitation of the Sergio Tacchini brand to the European market and a high level of debt from the beginning of the 2000s, Sergio Tacchini SpA announced in early 2007 on insolvency. The annual turnover rate was the mid-2000s to 100 million euros. However, this was compared to debt of 70 million to 80 million euros, with Intermittent operating margins of less than 5%. Sales in fiscal year 2007 amounted to 60 million euros. In 2008 the company founded by his father sold the former CEO Alessandro Tacchini, son of Sergio Tacchini, for 27 million euros (or 42 million U.S. dollars) to Billy Ngok, the owner of Hong Kong's textile trading company Hembly International Holdings Limited. Under Ngoks guide the development of the Chinese market is provided. A proposed acquisition of Sergio Tacchini by the Italian branch of the Munich investment management company Orlando in 2007 failed.
In 2008 there were still 120 Sergio Tacchini stores in Europe, including 80 in Italy alone. As most profitable markets Italy and France were. The state in early 2013, there were still Sergio Tacchini stores in Italy, Albania, the People's Republic of China, Greece, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Croatia. By the fall of 2013, however, all European stores of the brand Sergio Tacchini of Hembly International were closed.
2010 started Alessandro Tacchini with the fashion brand Sandys.Ht based on the original company name of Sergio Tachhini SpA in Florence again. The website of the brand was at the beginning of the 2010s, however not longer online.