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SAZ News Hotline
WFSGI Secretary General: Kock follows upon Gorgemans
André Gorgemans (67) will retire after having worked 17 years for the World Federation of Sporting Goods Industry. His successor Robbert de Kock (42) will start on September 15. The new president is John Larsen.
Born in the Netherlands, Robbert de Kock was a badminton pro and trainer and lived for many years in Switzerland. In the past twelve years, the economy and marketing specialist worked for Intersport International (IIC) in Berlin, as Director -License & Global Business. In this function, he was responsible for the expansion of the group in Europe, Middle East and Asia, too. De Kock speaks seven languages.
Bergans: New Export manager
Peter Carati is the new Export Manager at the Norwegian supplier Bergans. Carati worked for many years in the distribution of the Sweden tent supplier Hilleberg. After a short period at Yeti and a time-out, the 55-years-old will start at the Norwegian brand to manage the export.
Clothing/Hardware: GoLite appoints Euro-boss
Outdoor specialist GoLite has appointed a boss for the whole European business (without shoes, which are marketed via T Timberland): Mark Flanagan. Mark has long-term experience in the British sports and outdoor line of business. He started as sales agent for Reebok; afterwards he worked in the distribution for Berghaus. More recently however, he played an important part in Columbia’s UK-business.
European outdoor market: Germany leading
Represented by the European Outdoor Group EOG, suppliers could be proud of their solid growth at OutDoor.
EOG-General Manager Mark Held claimed the European market had grown only 2.6% up to € 5.49 billion. The business had developed more quantity rather than quality because of pricing pressures, he said.
The most important part of the market with a share of 49 % is clothing (€ 2.79 billion), followed by shoes (21.9 %, €1.2 billion). The rest represents hardware with 28.2 %. The category “pieces of luggage” (rucksacks, trolleys, bags) was most successful with a plus of 5 %.
At the moment, Germany is among the big markets, with a volume of €1.66 billion and a growth above the European average. But: concerning the per capita cost, the high qualitative markets like Norway, Sweden or Switzerland are leading. The largest market behind Germany are United Kingdom with €1.16 billion and France with €950 million. All the other markets lay below the value of €500 million. Measured on the population factor; bottom-of-the-table are Spain and Italy.
Largest climbing hall in Italy
Georg Oberrauch of Sportler AGwill will soon open in the Veneto the largest climbing hall in Italy with 2000 square metres pure climbing area. The cause is the opening of a new “Sportler”-shop (6000 square metres) in Treviso.
Bushnell sold to investors
The investment company Wind Point Partners has sold the optics company Cushnell to the private equity investor Mid Ocean Partners and shares to the top management under the direction of Joe Messner. Their future shares are described as significant, the present direction should stay the same. To Bushnell belong eleven outdoor, hunt and optics brands, inclusive Bollé.
