North Sails

Italian sportswear brand. Since 1987 it has been produced and distributed by the company Tomasoni Topsail (the president is Leopoldo Poppi, the CEO Giuseppe Fedeli), which was founded in Rapallo in 1972, where it still has its headquarters. It made equipment for sailing boats. In 1983 it broadened its outlook to include sportswear, and distributed the Henri Lloyd brand. The North Sails collections (two per year with a total of 565 models) are distributed in 1,100 Italian retail stores and 550 in the rest of Europe. The turnover in 1998 was 50 billion lire, 30% of which was from exports.