Amer Sports has slightly reshuffled the management team in the Europe, Middle East and Africa division, led by François Fauroux out of Munich, while its integration of Salomon proceeds at a rapid pace, combining back office functions to achieve critical mass and to have more efficient local organizations in place in the various countries. Adidas, which owned Salomon until September 2005, continues to take care of its sales only in Russia.

In spite of the integration process, Amer has decided to keep a separate office for Salomon and its related brands – Arc’teryx, Bonfire and Mavic - in some of the larger European markets such as Italy, France or Germany, but with one manager taking overall responsibility for profits and losses and for maximum market penetration at the national level. In Italy, for example, Marco Furlanis, country manager of Amer Sports, is now in charge of Salomon as well, following the retirement of Antonino Frattarelli, who led Salomon Italia. At the front end, however, the Amer and Salomon operations in Italy will remain housed in their respective offices in Bergamo and Montebelluna.

In France, where Amer Sports’ total sales are now above the annual threshold of €100 million, Pierre Louis Radius, who was in charge of Salomon’s sales in France, has assumed responsibility for Wilson, Suunto, Precor and Atomic in the country as well, but different sales reps will take care of the different brands. Salomon will keep its own sales network.
Radius will work out of Amer Sports’ French office in Lyon, as well as from current Salomon French office located in its global headquarters in Annecy, closer to the Alps. Olivier Ciaravino, former general manager of Amer Sports France, has become strategic sales director of the group for the EMEA region, reporting to Fauroux.

In the smaller markets where Amer and Salomon had different offices, the two staffs are coming under the same roof. That is the case for example in Sweden where the whole portfolio of brands within the Amer group is now handled from Boras, which was the site of Salomon’s former head office for the “Area North.” Amer’s former Swedish office in Malmö is going to be closed in April. Christer Lidgren, who ran Salomon Area North, is now in charge of the whole business in Sweden. Magnus Johansson, who ran the rest of Amer Sports, will leave the company at the beginning of April.

Salomon’s sales organizations in the EMEA are now fully integrated in the Amer Sports matrix. Each brand or sports category in Amer Sports’ portfolio has a business director for the EMEA region reporting to Fauroux. For Salomon, Patrick Chevallier has been appointed to take care of hardgoods and Thibault Cornet for softgoods. Chevallier was previously in charge of emerging markets at Salomon, whereas Cornet was previously in charge of Salomon’s apparel and gears business unit.

The other European business directors of Amer remain the same: Josef Neureiter for Atomic, Christian Singer for Wilson racquets, Doug Wright for Wilson golf, Toren Hirshfield for Suunto and Rob Barker for Precor.
In North America, as previously reported, the group is centralizing its winter and outdoor businesses under a single management structure, with the goal of a more efficient infrastructure for the operations and sales of Salomon, Atomic and Suunto.