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Bally International got the boot from Swiss conglomerate Oerlikon-Buhrle a decade ago, but the shoe designer still clings to its ballyhooed haute brand name. Bally focuses on selling its premium-priced shoes (50% of revenues). Other products include accessories (briefcases, handbags, neckwear, scarves) and apparel. Bally sells its products at about 200 company-owned stores worldwide. The firm has updated its image from fancy shoes to luxury goods and complete collections on par with Gucci and LVMH. Europe-based luxury goods holding firm LABELUX Group bought Bally from investment firm TPG Capital in 2008. LABELUX is owned by Joh. A. Benckiser.

CEO Dewey Barber owns Barber and Company, which he founded in 1985. Barber and Company wants clothing to be hot-pressed. The company manufactures more than 1,000 heat transfer silkscreen designs for sale to wholesalers, which apply the designs to T-shirts. Its Dixie Outfitters brand, which includes a Confederate battle flag logo, has been banned in some schools. Other brands include All American Outfitters, which uses the American flag in its designs, and Legalize Weed, which features images of marijuana and popular slogans. Barber and Company also offers preprinted shirts, makes custom designed transfers, and sells transfer machines.

Founded in 1894 by Tomas Bata, his son escaped Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia and fled to Canada, bringing with him some 100 "Bata pioneers" to re-establish his family's formerly profitable shoe business. Now enjoying a worldwide presence, the shoe maker operates some 5,000 company-owned stores in more than 50 countries. Bata produces millions of its own brand of shoes annually in facilities located mainly in India. Donations of funds and shoes from the company's owners, the Bata family, built the world's largest shoe museum in Toronto (one of the city's biggest tourist spots).

Beauty Gems Holdings was established in 1996. Beauty Gems Holdings Co., Ltd. company makes mostly rings featuring diamonds and semi-precious stones that are sold in Europe, Japan, Thailand, and the US. It sells jewelry through a few Beauty Gems stores and a dozen Beauty Diamond outlets located within the Central and Robinson department store chains in Thailand. As Thailand's biggest manufacturer and exporter of platinum jewelry, the group also exports about 95% of its diamonds. Intensified competition from producers in India, China, and Vietnam have prompted the company in recent years to fine-tune its talent.

Founded and run by brothers Steve and Rick Billig, Billig Jewelers is a high-end jewelry manufacturer and retailer that sells bracelets, earrings, engagement rings, and more. The Billigs opened a tiny retail store specializing in silver cable bracelets in the 1980s. Today, the company's handcrafted pieces of jewelry are sold in their own stores, as well as through the Billig Jewelers' Web site. S&R Designs, the jewelry designing arm of the company, targets customers who frequently purchase new jewelry and are interested in keeping up with the latest trends.

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