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European General Manager for GoLite Mark Flanagan has been tasked with the huge job of gaining a foothold for the GoLite brand this side of the pond. He explained to SGB what their plans are, what makes their product special and how things are progressing.
SGB: How are you approaching the introduction of GoLite into the UK market?
Mark Flanagan: We have three sales agents in the UK now, in Scotland, North of England and Wales and South East; we are still looking for the right person in the South West, so at the moment I am dealing with any accounts we have down there. I also deal with all the key accounts.
We have over 20 stockists in the UK and the majority of that early growth has come from the Spring 09 range. There is a combination of bricks and mortar with internet retailers and internet only. The 25 per cent that are internet accounts are specialists in this field, and these are some of the accounts that were performing quite well when I took over last July (07).
Going forward we are getting growth from people who have responded to the PR of the brand and are looking for something new and more technical to put in their stores In the UK we have been discerning with our product placement and we do not put the product with retailers who discount heavily - we are positioned as premium and that is attracting premium retailers. We could widen the distribution but I am mindful of the fact that we can sustain a profitable business with around 50 dealers in the UK to facilitate the consumers that we have. If we head into 2009 with 30 dealers I'll be happy with that as we can build up the trust with the dealers that we can deliver the product and back it with PR.
SGB: Speaking of your PR, what is 'GoLite on the Planet'?
MF: GoLite on the Planet is GoLite's environmental initiative that is at the core of the brand. Kim Coupounas, cofounder of GoLite along with her husband Demetri Coupounas, has taken the position of Chief Environmental Officer within the company. This position is key to preserving GoLite's mission statement, which we have always adhered to. She researches the positioning of factories and has links in all parts of the world with the aim to minimise the environmental impact to eventually define our true baseline. I take note of my air miles, which is all part of GoLite's aim to become a totally carbon neutral and a zero waste company by 2010.
GoLite has also invested in wind farms in America, so we are not only committed to getting the company to be carbon neutral but we are also investing in the future. Our aim is to give something back rather than being happy with neutralising out impact.
SGB: What are the key products for you?
MF: The core products for us are backpacks, shelters and sleeping bags in that order. It's an interesting position to be in as we have high value items as best sellers which are giving us the stepping stone to launch our apparel. Looking at Europe our sales have grown substantially in apparel from Spring 08. In the UK apparel has grown 15 per cent compared to S08. We have a good core of apparel and expect this to grow substantially on the next few seasons due to the large investments we have made in our D&D team in Boulder.
SGB: Who are the end users?
MF: Our age range is quite broad and our core customer generally takes less so covers more ground; this in turn normally equates to using less so making less impact on the planet. Our consumers are people that value the quality of premium items and appreciate the value that well built and durable items bring. In other words a £300 sleeping bag is going to last them longer and perform better than less expensive one. Plus the most pleasing thing for me is that we have great consumer loyalty.
As a brand we have a three-stage design principle 1) Performance 2) Durability 3) Lite Weight. Our customers invest lot of money in our gear and they want the product to last so that is our expectation of every product. Even before I joined the brand we had consumers from all over Europe who would pay the import tax to get GoLite product.
SGB: Do you have different product for the different genders? Are men and women's product treated differently?
MF: We apply our design and fit standard separately for men's and women's products throughout our range We look at the different gender torso shapes so the rucksacks and sleeping bags are designed to specially fit the body's specific requirements. GoLite's women's products are not just a scaled down version of the men's range but have been developed to meet the differing body requirements. This enables us to create more and more consumer loyalty. We get many testimonies from all types of consumers that tell us how surprised they are by the comfort and performance of the Jam backpack for instance.
SGB: You mentioned that you are supporting the brand with PR - how? What are you doing?
MF: MCS are our PR company as they have a wealth of experience of outdoor gear for outdoor end use. If you're on a hill, usually people will know GoLite, if you are on the street people will not know us. We have editorials and test product in all the main outdoor magazines regularly and as we get a bigger profile we will advertise in the wider market. We are investing a lot on 'product seeding' to key opinion leaders. Towards the back end of next year we are going to launch more consumer incentives like competitions, which we have already done with TGO and Trail recently.
Our golite.com website will be updated in January so it will feature comprehensive dealer details which consumer can use to find their closest stockist.
We also have a special site for dealers - knowlite.com - that features 360 dpi pictures of every product in our current and previous ranges, along with all logo standards and downloadable workbooks etc; This website is used by dealers to build their own GoLite web pages on their own sites. It has proven to be a key asset for all our European dealers and we will continue to update this each season.
SGB: What's hot for 2009 from GoLite?
MF: We have four products that we are particularly pleased with. Backpacks have seen a big update for Spring 09. We have three ranges in both backpacks and sleeping bags. The Ultra backpack range features Dyneema, which is fabric that is twice as strong as Kevlar and 15 times as stronger than steel, it's also light-weight so this fits perfectly into our 3 stage design process. These backpacks, in particular the Jam model, are proving to be popular with all retailers. Although products have generally kept their same name, they are updated or have brand new features. We like to keep the same names for our key products from season to season as helps for our retailers when they make their ranging decisions and builds up consumer recognition with our PR.
Sleeping bags have had an update too, in particular the Adrenaline range which features a centre zip for comfort, fitting and ventilation. The head area is called the 'skull glove' to ensure a better fit and greater heat retention and comes in 3 temperature ratings. All sleeping bags also feature the ‘arid zone' at the top and bottom of the bags which is constructed out of waterproof Pertex Endurance® to ensure the bag does not become wet from condensation etc.
Shelters - We have always had a popular range amongst consumers in particular the Shangri-La 3 model. This shelter is designed in a pyramid shape, and has a centre pole so it is very easy to construct, it weighs 1270 grams for the shelter and the floor combined and it can sleep 3 people and all their kit easily.
In apparel we have the Ether jacket which is constructed in our EcoWisp® fabric. This fabric is 88% recycled polyester and 12% anti static which has improved performance considerably It's worth noting too that our Global range is available for all European dealers.
SGB: Have you made any POS to support retailers?
MF: For Spring 09 we are producing range cards and banners in eco-friendly foam; our product has previously sold well without POS so it will be interesting to see if this boosts sales. For S10 onwards we will have a POP package available for all our dealers.
