Christoph Bronder, the executive who has apparently worked wonders with Völkl while keeping the German ski brand's production in Germany, has been named as president and chief executive of K2-MDV Holdings, the new company set up by Kohlberg & Company to group together all the winter sports brands it has acquired from Newell Brands.
Bronder is currently the CEO of Marker Dalbello Völkl. After running Völkl successfully, he became the managing director of K2 Europe in 2008, following the acquisition of Marker, Völkl and other sports brands by Jarden in the previous year. He oversaw the acquisition of Marker in 2000 and Dalbello in 2015.
Bronder must have a good financial turnaround plan, considering the fact that Kohlberg is paying $240 million for a group of brands that had combined adjusted Ebitda of just $25 million last year on sales of around $330 million. Other candidates for the acquisition, including the Scott Sports Group, didn't want to pay the price for those assets. The sale of the business, which was inherited from the former Jarden Corp. in April 2016, was completed a few days ago, on July 18.
Bronder has evidently been placed at the head of the combined business because Völkl is making a profit while its big sister brand in the U.S., K2, is losing money. In contrast with other ski brands that are still manufacturing in Europe, K2 has suffered delayed deliveries lately because of its reliance on a distant factory in China that has also been working for Shakespeare, the fishing tackle brand of Jarden. The plant was the centerpiece of a strategy developed by Jarden when K2 began to acquire many other brands. The Marker group also owns Line and Madshus skis, Ride snowboards and Atlas and Tubbs snowshoes.
Robert Marcovitch, president of K2, will leave the newly formed group after a period of transition, and Kohlberg is looking for his successor. The American equity investment firm has also appointed one of its partners, Joe Lawer, as chairman of K2-MDV Holdings An operating partner of Kohlberg, Michael Quinn, will be the global chief financial officer, based at K2's head office in Seattle.
Jonathan Wiant will remain in charge of sales, marketing and product development for the Marker, Völkl and Dalbello brands. Andrea Bergamin will continue to run operations.
