Thai athletic shoe distributor Pan to launch its own Maximus brand.

Byline: Sukanya Jitpleecheep

Jul. 6--The Pan Group, Thailand's leading athletic shoe producer, has ceased the distribution of major foreign sporting goods brands such as Puma and No Fear and is shifting its focus to developing its own brands of merchandise.

Sports Ace Co, the sporting goods marketing arm of Pan, has let the five-year distribution deal of Puma products and the three-year agreement with No Fear expired without renewing them.

Sports Ace managing director Somchai Arunwattanakul explained: "We had marketed foreign sporting goods for several years. We'd invested a lot of money to build each brand but we ended up having no assets of our …