Effective May 1, Henrik Bunge will be the new chief executive of Peak Performance. The 38-year-old currently acts as the managing director of Adidas Group Nordic. Adidas has yet to name a successor to Bunge.
The appointment of Bunge at Peak Performance came after the Swedish brand recruited Tobias Sachs for the position of the sales director, effective Feb. 29. After six years in various sales positions with Peak, he has been directing the sales at J.Lindeberg since 2008. The position of the sales director was vacant for quite a while after the departure of Stefan Wahlén, who switched to Wolsey. The job has been executed on an interim basis by Jari Tanninen, the head of Peak's Finnish operations.
On an interim basis as well, Peak Performance as a whole has been led by Ann Larsson, chief financial officer, since last September, when the former chief, Jonas Ottosson, quit the company over strategic disagreement with the Danish parent group, IC Companys. Ottosson, who joined the brand in 1989, steered the company from 1999, shortly after the acquisition by the Danish group then known as Carli Gry.
Even though Ottosson more than quadrupled Peak's sales to about 1.3 billion Swedish kronor (€147.4m-$188.7m) during his long rule, the parent company saw more potential, especially when it comes to casual wear, which contributes only 30 percent of the sales compared with active wear's 70 percent.
The split between Ottosson and IC Companys was apparently caused by disagreements over the means to expand the brand. After more than one year of preparations, a new strategic plan was unveiled by Peak Performance in May, which apparently failed to convince IC Companys. The Danish owner is seeking faster turnover growth for Peak Performance, but there were fears at the company that this might hurt the brand and its profit margin.
