Slazenger

Infobox Company
company_name = Slazenger
company_
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foundation = 1881
location = Shirebrook, England
key_people =
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industry = Sporting goods
products = Racquets, Tennis equipment, Cricket equipment, Golf equipment, Apparel, Accessories
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parent = Sports Direct
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homepage = [http://www.sports-direct-international.com/ www.sports-direct-international.com] | footnotes =

Slazenger is a British sports equipment brand name sold throughout 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.

History

In 1881, four 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, with the current deal set to run until 2015, it remains one of the longest unbroken sporting sponsorships 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.

During Queen Victoria's reign three manufacturing firms were founded in the 1870s and 1880's by Albert Slazenger 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.

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

Bombs over London

On 15 September 1940 during a heavy air raid on London, incendiary bombs fell on the Slazenger factory. 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 nation's war effort and then ultimately in peace time. Henceforth the company was known as Slazengers Sykes Gradidge and Ayres.

The War Years 1939-1945

Probably a little known fact was the Slazengers Sykes Gradidge and Ayres contribution to the World War II effort. 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

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.

Selling a Brand

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 and Dunlop 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 and the brand slowly fell from grace.

*1959 Ralph Slazenger sells the family business to Dunlop Rubber

*1985 Dunlop Rubber is purchased by BTR plc, which forms a Sports Group combining Slazenger with the Dunlop Sport branded goods

*1996 BTR sells Dunlop Sport in a management buyout for £300 million - the buyout was backed by investment company Cinven. The new company is known as Dunlop Slazenger.

*2004 CINVen sells Dunlop Slazenger to Sports World International for a reported £40 million, who in turn sold on the rights to the "Slazenger Golf" brand in Europe to JJB Sports.

Global rights and licencing

With the purchase of Dunlop Slazenger by Sports World International did not come the global rights to the brand. In the Australia and New Zealand, the Slazenger brand is owned and licensed by Pacific Brands, with full and exclusive rights to sell and distribute throughout those territories.

SWI has chosen not to diversify the brands it has acquired internally, and thus strain their own resources and finances, but to license them globally. With Slazenger this has been achieved successfully, with the Slazenger name being seen on a wide range of products not previously associated with the brand, such as sunglasses, toiletries and push bikes.

Sponsorships

Many of the licensees of the Slazenger name have endorsement deals with sports teams and stars in order to promote their products.

Cricket Endorsements

*flagicon|Pakistan Pakistan National Cricket Team
*flagicon|England Ian Bell
*flagicon|England Paul Collingwood
*flagicon|England Matt Prior
*flagicon|South Africa Jacques Kallis
*flagicon|Australia Michael Clarke (Pacific Brands)