Rawlings Sporting Goods and its parent company, Jarden Corp., are "seeking to grow sales outside the U.S." and have "signed multiple foreign sponsorship deals recently," according to Lisa Brown of the ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH. Rawlings execs said that less than 5% of company sales "are currently outside of the U.S. and Canada, giving it room for growth." The Missouri-based Rawlings on Friday will host "more than 40 baseball players and coaches from China and an internationally known cricket player from Australia." The company opened an office in Tokyo in '12 and has "since grown its sales staff focused on foreign markets from one employee to 20." The company is "focusing its efforts on growing sales of Rawlings gloves and other products in Japan, the second largest baseball market behind the U.S., but it also sees opportunities to grow the Rawlings brand in Europe, Latin America and other countries." Rawlings last month signed "a six-year sponsorship deal with the Chinese Baseball Association," and at the beginning of '14 "signed a three-year deal to sponsor the Australian Baseball League and Baseball Australia." Meanwhile, Cricket Australia captain Michael Clarke is scheduled to meet with Rawlings staff on Friday "to help designers create a new line of cricket gloves." The company three weeks ago "signed a sponsorship deal with Clarke to develop the new line, marking Rawlings’ first foray" into cricket (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 4/11).
