Austro Holding, the majority shareholder of Deeluxe, has pulled out of its investment in this brand of snowboard boots. The people now controlling Deeluxe Sportartikel Handels GmbH are Klaus Brandstätter, the chief executive of the company since its foundation in 2002, and Friedrich Obholzer, an Austrian investor and tax consultant. The two together now hold 89 percent of the shares. An additional new partner with 10 percent is Thorsten Frackenpohl, a designer from Cologne. The remaining 1 percent is in the hands of Joe Goukon, the Tokyo-based distributor of Deeluxe in Japan. Based in Vienna, Austria Holding is an investment company led by Erhard F. Grossnig, an entrepreneur who had stakes in other Austrian sporting goods operations before. For instance, he was a major party in the combination formerly known as Kneissl & Friends, a group of brands consisting of Deeluxe, the Kneissl brand of skis and the Dachstein and Raichle footwear labels. While Austria Holding continues to control Dachstein, Raichle was eventually acquired by Mammut Sports Group. Austria Holding was also involved in Dynafit, the specialty brand of ski-touring equipment bought by Salewa some years ago. Currently, Deeluxe also has the distribution in Austria for Capita (U.S. snowboards), Von Zipper (Billabong's brand of sports eyewear), Union (bindings), Coal (headwear) and CEP (compression garments). Earlier this year, Brandstätter stepped down from his additional role as managing director of Dachstein, which is now run by Oliver Wieser. Deeluxe expects total sales of €5.8 million for the current year.

Topics