Bruno Sälzer, supervisory board chairman at Amer Sports, has told Handelsblatt that the Finnish group wants to grow through organic expansion as well as acquisitions, for which it has “a few hundred million” euros at its disposal. The company owns 12 brands, and its latest acquisition was Armada, the U.S. winter sports equipment supplier, for about $4 million in March. Sälzer suggested that Amer would consider functional sports brands that fit with the current group structure, at the right price. Amer has recently revised its targets, which called for sales to reach €3.5 billion by 2020 but now aims for annual mid-single digit organic sales increases in constant currencies. The company explained in September that the change was triggered by the tough situation in the U.S. retail market, where Amer had anticipated annual sales growth of 9 percent but was confronted with low single-digit growth. Sälzer is the chief executive of Bench, and he became board chairman at Amer in March.

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