BOSTON (AP) — CML Group Inc. has filed for bankruptcy protection for
its Minnesota-based NordicTrack subsidiary that makes fitness equipment.
NordicTrack’s president, William E. Shepard, resigned from the parent
company’s board, CML said in announcing it was seeking bankruptcy
protection.
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NordicTrack announced sales had plummeted 30 percent in the last fiscal
year, partly because the company in January stopped selling exercise
equipment through direct mail and television infommercials.
NordicTrack, based in Chaska, Minn., posted an operating loss of
$85.6 million for the year ended July 31. That compares to an operating
loss of $58.7 million in fiscal 1997.
Acton, Mass.-based CML began searching for a buyer for the ailing
maker of cross-country ski machines but failed to find any interested
parties.
Last month CML said it would close most of the NordicTrack retail
locations and eliminate up to 20 percent of its work force.
NordicTrack ski machines dominated the home fitness market for years.
But industry analysts told The Boston Globe that the company’s troubles
were not surprising in the notoriously faddish fitness equipment
industry.
Tom Doyle of the National Sporting Goods Association said NordicTrack
had “reached a saturation point.”
“It’s not like golf clubs, something you have to replace every five
years,” Doyle said. “You buy a home cross-country ski machine only once
in a lifetime.”
CML has cut 1,200 jobs since the beginning of the year, including 500
positions last week.
