You are in:
Zoggs Expanding the brand
Swimming equipment specialists Zoggs has grown considerably in the last five years, and that is set to continue with their innovative Bondi range, developed with bra specialists Bravissimo. Jon Bruford chatted with Mark Hammersley, CEO of the Kendal Group, which includes Zoggs and Pure Lime.
How long has Zoggs been around?
Zoggs was originally an Australian business.We still term it as an Australian brand because that's where its heritage is and its roots are. But now it's a UK-owned business and we run it from here with a subsidiary in Australia.
The brand itself has only been around since 1992 and only been in the UK since about 1994. It's only really become established as a brand in the UK since about 2002. The last five years have been our key years of growth in the UK.
Before that, Zoggs in the UK established itself very clearly in the leisure centre and gym market, which was its early positioning.We continue to have a strong position in that market but we have broadened the distribution into retail as well.
What makes Zoggs different to your rivals?
We have a very clear brand vision, which helps us and our customers understand exactly what Zoggs is. Essentially we are targeted at the 7million regular fitness swimmers in the UK, adult swimmers that swim once a week or more.We are not targeted at the competition or racing swimmer. Our interest is in the broad-base fitness swimmer.
In most sports there is an umbilical cord from the professional sport to the amateur level, but in swimming that's really not the case. Most people do not swim to race, they swim for fitness, relaxation, rehab or whatever, and we believe you have to have a unique approach to speak to those consumers. I think that differentiates us from our competitors who for the most part are focussed on racing and competition at the top and have the 'trickle down' from that, as it were.
How do you market to that field? It's an impossibly wide demographic.
It is indeed – it's both sexes and all ages.You have to really focus on the reasons why people swim, not what age they are or lifestyle attitudes or whatever.
We have a program called Swim4Fitness online, which has about 50,000 people signed up for in its database.You talk to some people from that who swim for relaxation, some for fitness, some are 'weekend warriors' – finding out those motivations allows us to break down those consumers, so it's the motivation and the methods rather than age, gender et cetera.
What else is in the Zoggs line?
Zoggs was established initially as a goggles and equipment brand. Our core is that, though we have moved into swimwear in the last four or five years; swimwear is the biggest part of the swim market, so that interests us the most and swimwear is now about 30 per cent of our sales. That's grown from five per cent five years ago, so it's a much larger chunk of our sales now.
We have had some significant years of growth recently, but growth can be good and bad.You have to keep pace with it and be sure you can supply that demand and make sure you have the infrastructure to support that growth.
What are the next steps to grow the brand?
Two obvious areas. Goggles and equipment,we figure that more people will turn to the pool as a workout in future. We have an ageing population, looking for a low-impact workout, still want to stay fit… swimming is the perfect way to do that.And that's not just with goggles, it's with training aids in the pool to make sure the workout is maximised.
Also,we think only about 50 per cent of regular swimmers wear goggles, which is ridiculous when you think about the benefits of goggles. If you look at kids, 95 per cent of them wear goggles. I think that's to do with the fact that most people over the age of 25 remember goggles as not being very good, fitting badly, letting in water… As a result, maybe the industry as a whole hasn't done enough to explain to adults that goggles are actually pretty damn good these days! So there's an organic opportunity as these kids grow up, more of them will wear goggles as they swim.
The second are is in swimwear,we believe we have a long way to expand in that area and it's a key opportunity for us.
Do you endorse any celebrities?
No.We work with some high-profile swim teachers in their locale, and we're talking to one British ex-swimmer now, but that's to do with getting people into the water, not as an actual product endorsement.
How do you think your gear is perceived by the customer, the end consumer?
I think people see us as being serious about what we do, but as treating swimming as a fun activity. I say that because our packaging is bright and colourful, and we're obviously trying to be informative and explain how the product is to perform, but we're not deadly serious. Swimming can be intimidating enough for some people, without us adding to that.We try to be accessible, and I like to think people see us as that and recognise us as the brand for them rather than the brand for people that want to win races.
You've just announced your line of swimwear with Bravissimo, the bra specialist that caters for the larger-busted woman. How did that come about?
One of the views we started to take some time ago is that it's not just about women with larger breasts, it's about people getting bigger.And I don't mean fatter, or unfit – in the past your average size in the past might have been a size 34 swimsuit, but suddenly there's a shift in the size curve and the average is 36, or 38.We started spending a lot more time in leisure centres observing, and noticed many women swimmers are larger physically than in the past – they are taller, broader, and very very fit.
We'd started looking at this then went to the lingerie fair at Harrogate, where we tied up with Bravissimo and started talking to them about our Pure Lime range about sports bras. But it became apparent that they were looking for a performance range of swimwear for their customers, rather than something you might wear just on the beach. So we came up with the Bondi range, which is a wire-free bra-sized range in sizes up to a UK G-cup.
They're a terrifically technical retailer, very focussed on getting the product absolutely right for their customers. That adds a lot of value to us, having a partner like that which is so demanding, because it asks a lot of us and means we have the product exactly right.
They won't let anything into their brochures or shops without testing rigorously first.
Is there a period of exclusivity with Bravissimo?
Only on one line, for six months up to June next year. We're actually making the range available to the rest of the trade from that point.
Do you supply retail merchandise to help the retailer promote within their stores?
Yes,we do a lot. From something to hang goggles on or put equipment on up to reasonable sized gondolas for swimwear and equipment, and of course POS in terms of images.
As a brand and distributor, what is your relationship with the independent retailer like? How do you support them?
We still have a lot of sales guys, about eight field sales reps on the road in the UK which is more than most. That's partly because we also work with retailers as well as leisure centres and gyms.We also work with Stag and the Allied group,working with all their members via our sales force. We still believe in that, rather than doing simple phone sales.
