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The Mountain Boot Company
With a constant bombardment from the media about how difficult times are getting, along with a genuine slowing-down of high street trade, many distributors are looking to broaden their product offering to customers so they can offer more reasons for the retailer to come back. The Mountain Boot Company, with quality brands in its stable like Deuter, Grivel, Scarpa and now Outdoor Research, has done exactly that, and, says Steve Roberts, OR is the company's 'roof' which completes their 'house'. SGB found out what an impressive house that is...
SGB: Exciting times for The Mountain Boot Company - can you elaborate on recent developments?
Steve Roberts: This year for us has been a significant year of change; every year gets busier but there's no doubt this has been the busiest of our working lives that I can recall, with lots of exciting things on the table.
We've significantly added in a new brand to our portfolio which is the innovative American brand Outdoor Research, which we start distributing in January 09; we've already started forward selling for that spring-summer season. The best way I can describe the addition of that brand really is that it's the roof on our house. As the market consolidates and retailers are looking to work with fewer suppliers, our goal has been to put The Mountain Boot Company in pole position to be a strong supplier to withstand that market change. We currently provide our retailers with exceptional brands and service in footwear, rucksacks, sleeping bags, alpine hardware and we're now able to extend that with the addition of Outdoor Research to cover some classic accessory categories like gaiters, headwear, handwear, storage, bivvy and shelter, and really significantly with OR adding in an apparel range to our portfolio for the first time.
We've had a number of approaches from different clothing brands over the years, but this is the first time the company's actually entered that market, because we've been waiting for what we consider to be the right brand in clothing to fit with our current brand mix, our customer base, and to fit in with our strategy of service and supply. Outdoor Research has ticked all the boxes on that front.
SGB: What about the other brands you take care of - Deuter, Grivel and Scarpa?
SR: In terms of the existing brand development it's been a year of change from all of our core suppliers in that, for example, Scarpa have launched two new product lines which are bringing added growth to our existing portfolio. One is a range called Scarpa Alpine Cross, which is a range of cross-terrain shoes spanning price points from £65 to £90; it's been manufactured in the Far East, which is allowing us to reach a new range of price points and a different level of construction and aesthetic that we just couldn't achieve from our European factory. It's a very complementary range to what we already do. So far, the retailer take-up on that for SS09 has been nothing short of phenomenal; it looks like we're seeing around a 40 per cent business growth opportunity in pairage terms for the Scarpa brand by introducing that collection. It's looking very strong.
Additionally, we've introduced a range called Lite Trek, which has been designed at a time when we recognise that price inflation is rife within footwear. This year, we've all seen products move over the magic £100 barrier; as we see that, we're all conscious that, no matter what happens with inflation, £100 is still an absolutely critical price point in the UK. With that in mind we've engineered two products within the Lite Trek range to come in and offer the Scarpa brand, with GoreTex lining and Vibram soles, to come in at £99.99. With these we're hopfeull keeping in tune with the more price conscious Scarpa consumer, and even to an extent perhaps attracting new consumers.
On the Deuter side of things, since we took the brand's distribution on in the last three years we've seen phenomenal growth. This year could see us achieve a milestone of doubling the business in the UK from our point of takeover three years ago. That's a fantastic achievement and testimony to the quality of the products and the brand support that retailers have given it. While Deuter has manufactured an enormous range of rucksacks, they've also developed a small range of sleeping bags. We've actually expanded that range with a selection of UK-specific products which Kieran Mackenzie, our Deuter UK Brand Manager, has designed in conjunction with Deuter's German design team. That's just been delivered into stores for this Autumn; it was supposed to be a Spring 09 launch, but the demand and interest was there so we delivered early. That's almost like having a new brand for us, because it's in such a significant product category for our retailers.
Another core brand is Grivel, which is a brand that's recognising the changing market and in particular the effect of global warming and the potential risk to its core business in ice axes and crampons. It's diversifying to try and give a more year-round product portfolio. They recently acquired a trekking and ski pole manufacturing facility in Italy, for example. The facility manufactures more than 650,000 poles per year, and they've acquired it with a contract to produce that quantity for the next four years. They're using the revenue from this to branch out and invest in the brand, and develop products in their core sector, and also in new areas such as their own-brand range of trekking poles. So we've recently launched a range of Grivel mountain walking and trekking poles which have some unique innovations within them. There's a strong take-up and interest already for those within the specialist sector.
SGB: Growth presents its own challenges though - how are you adapting to accommodate this growth?
SR: One of the key things from our point of view, in light of all of this brand and product development, is how do we deliver that, and consolidate it into the market? With that growth level of existing brands and new brands, moving forward, we've restructured our sales operation. We now have four full-time sales representatives on the ground, supported by two dedicated brand managers (for Deuter and Outdoor Research). We've moved toward creating much more compact territories for our sales team, with the emphasis being on more time in front of the customer and less time in traffic jams.
Our previous strategy was to have a mix of agents and representatives covering different brands within our portfolio; now we've hopefully simplified things for the retailer in that they have one point of contact for The Mountain Boot Company, covering all of their brands, so they can look to one resource for any form of sales aid, training, merchandising or support.
That new structure has begun with the SS09 selling season, and so far the retailer feedback seems to be very positive. It's certainly helping us drive the necessary call rate that we need to get around all of our customers with a growing brand portfolio.
Behind that, in terms of systems and infrastructure, we've expanded our Newcastle showroom to add space for Outdoor Research product, for example. It's a place where retailers can come and see the entire portfolio and it's become very important to us. Three years ago, when we took on the Deuter brand, retailers needed to travel and see it in a shop-like environment, as it's physically impossible to carry all of those rucksacks into any one retailer on one occasion. It's the same for Outdoor Research as a brand, to see the product in a shop-like environment with good lighting is key from a retailer's point of view.
We've made some extensions in our warehouse to handle the increased growth, both in terms of size and space, and personnel.
SGB: You've also got an interesting profit share scheme that started this year, connected to the Deuter brand...
SR: One of the highlights this year has been the launch of the www.deutergb.co.uk web site, which is a dedicated Deuter web site for the UK covering all 300+ products within the range, with technical information and resources for the consumer, but also for the first time, a direct consumer sale facility which is backed by the new initiative 'Clicks to Bricks', which is a unique profit-sharing scheme for all our retailers. A percentage of the profit generated by retail sales on the deutergb.co.uk site is diverted directly back to the retailers who are investing in and supporting the Deuter brand. Put simply, the bigger the account for Deuter, and the more support you give the brand in-store, the bigger slice of the online profit pie you gain. It's early days for the launch of the site, but we anticipate it will provide a fantastic service level and resource for the UK consumer. It makes an enormous product range directly available, which no single retailer would ever be able to manage in one go.
Interested in The Mountain Boot Company's diverse range? Contact details are: Tel: 0191 296 0212, web: http://www.mountainboot.co.uk/ or email: info@mountainboot.co.uk
