Canterbury Europe in administration
The economic crisis continues to hurt the football world, although some clubs are still spending inflated transfer fees to acquire player signatures. Smaller clubs are the ones that are hurt the most by the economic cycle, as large clubs have enough reserves to weather the storm. This time it isn’t a football club that has gone bankrupt, but a shirt manufacturer, which is an important player in the football world. Canterbury is based in New Zealand but has its European branch. This region has been incurring heavy losses, and today it was announced that Canterbury Europe has now gone into administration. The administrators which are responsible for realising the firm’s assets and paying up the liabilities are KPMG.
Canterbury have become well-known in England by agreeing a manufacturing deal with Portsmouth FC. Pompey will now have to start looking for a replacement to manufacture their kits for the upcoming season. KPMG reported that Canterbury’s move into football has been unsuccessful and one of the reasons for bankruptcy. The contract with the Premier League club has been terminated with immediate effect, and Portsmouth have become an unsecured creditor for the amount they are owed. 72 workers were laid off and 14 workers kept until a buyer is found. There are also reports that the parent company in New Zealand is also in difficulty and searching for acquirors or investors.
Shame,
I thought they did some good work. Better than most more traditional football shirt manufacturers.
The world of football shirts is suffering a massive loss…
This is sad news, I think their kits have been a breath of fresh air, really nice fit, fabric and designs. It seems the only way to succeed is forumlaic tat, step forward Kappa, Adidas, Nike and worst of all …. 2 template Puma.
That’s a shame. They have made some very smart shirts. The recesssion has mean’t people have had less to spend on luxury items like footy shirts. You know the rest.
So now that Portsmouth’s strip will presumably no longer be made by Canterbury, any news on who will be manufacturing the kits this season? It best not be a return to the likes of Jako or any cheap tat like that!
Try making kits for a team that isn’t a village team on the south coast that brings 200 fans to an away game.
They clearly went bust as they didn’t seel enough Portsmouth shirts – hardly surprising they have a very small fan base and awful attendances – they remind me of a div 2 side.
Portsmouth are one club in real turmoil. No manager, players leaving left right and centre, and a takevover deal that is up in the air
the only reason we have awful attendance is because we have a small ground! if we had a bigger ground we would fill that every week too
and we do have a whole city of fans behind us, unlike other cities across the country you don;t see many ‘big 4′ shirts that people wear as glory hunters, there are hardly any of them in pompey!
unfortunately yeah, we are goin through a bad spell atm, but the deal seems to be moving through slowly. but the administration of canterbury isn;t cause we haven’t sold enough shirts, isn;t there a team in spain who has canterbury aswell? and hasn;t anyone heard of the credit crunch?? :L
JWheelie12 – firstly, we are not a village we are a city, secondly, what’s wrong with being on the coast? and thirdly, i’m taking a wild guess you’re a newcastle fan or sunderland because the only reason we took a small amount of fans to those games was because sky or setanta went and changed the games, from saturday to a sunday at 12:30 at sunderland and the newcastle one was changed to monday midweek game. it takes a good 7-8 hours for fans to get up to there from portsmouth, so maybe that’s why there weren’t many there?
Simon – canterbury didn;t go bust because of us not selling many shirts, what a stupid thing to say! havent you heard of the credit crunch, there’s businesses goin bust all over the world! and we’re not the only club to be manufactured by canterbury there’s a team in spain who is aswell. and possibly another that i’ve heard about. and so what if we remind you of a division 2 club, all of our fans would say the same, having spent that long in those divisions. we are in the premiership now, but have kept those traditions and fans aren’t bothered
pompey flo:),
I think it is Deportivo la Coruna whose shirts are made by Canterbury, very nice shirts too. Canterbury also make kits for French side Lille OSC.
ITS THE SAME AS THE 2008 KIT!
I was up north at the weekend and visited Bradford City v Burnley, Bradfords kit is made by surridge and it was great quality, perhaps we should look at this company for value for money
Shame. I’ve liked the Canterbury kits, particularly the first home one they did for Pompey, and the Deportivo one.
As for Portsmouth fans, when they’ve been up to play Everton, their away support is fantastic. When we beat them 3-1 in 07-08, they still sang from 1st minute to last. Some of the best visiting supporters we’ve had in recent years.
i’d just like to say a massive thank you to you ‘Grongy’ for saying exactly what our supporters are about!
I recall reading Pompey have some of the loudest fans in all the Premier.
Play up Pompey, good times are ahead.
@ jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaado :that is the 2007/08 shirt
its a shame…canterbury started to roll some good shirts
i mean 08/09
*blush with embarrasment*
Mansfield town fc
Yes we are now a non-league club but we have new owners
who are trying to lift the club back into the football league. We have a new away kit out this year and new sponsors on the home kit.Its the first time in years we have had the shirt out for fans before christmas then this happens.
Other brands will jump at the chance to take on the big clubs like Pompey and Lille but who will care about us.So spare a thought for the workers made redundant and the minnows like us who will just be tossed aside.
Canterbury claim to be Kiwi, but have been owned by a Kuwaiti bank for about 6 years; their South African operation has gone **** up too. The bottom line is they have been losing money since they lost the All Blacks contract about 8 years ago. Moving into football was always going to be a challenge – few can compete with Nike and Adidas.