Umbro capitalized on the worldwide growth of the soccer market and key licensed apparel deals to post a 36.4% increase in sales for the first half of 2004 to £94.1 million ($171.5 mm) compared to £68.9 million ($111.1) last year. Umbro said that it had record sales of licensed product, and expects the back half to be boosted by a deal recently signed with Foot Locker which will put Umbro product in over 1,000 doors in the U.S. by the end of Q4.

Peter McGuigan, Chief Executive of UMBRO, said, “The popularity of football across the world continues to increase… We have a clear strategy in place to expand our core business as well as to exploit new identified areas of expansion both in the UK and internationally.”

Umbro’s EBITA reflected the increased performance in sales and jumped 140% to £16.6 million ($30.2 mm) compared to £6.9 million ($11.1) last year. The company’s adjusted EPS followed the upward trend with a 40.4% increase to 7.3 pence (13.3¢) compared to 5.2 pence (8.4¢) last year.