Brunotti Europe has been upgrading and expanding its distribution in the last two years, as part of a multi-year plan mapped out with investors to lift sales to about €50 million by 2017. This compares with a turnover in the range of €26 million in 2013 and projected sales of about €30 million this year.
As previously reported, equity partners were brought into the Dutch-based company's capital in 2011, taking over a majority of the shares from Henk Bergsma, who remains a minority shareholder. Apart from their financial backup, Greenfield Capital Partners, Commonwealth Investments and Theo Dietz (a long-time shareholder of JSI, the former licensee for O'Neill in Europe), contributed expertise in retailing, merchandising and marketing.
Among the most important improvements, Brunotti has launched a never-out-of-stock (NOS) program for all of its distribution across Europe and some other countries. Its approach is to start with board stores, then expand the NOS program to other sports stores and gradually all accounts. It has been adopted most eagerly by retailers in Greece, Germany and Switzerland.
The well-oiled operation has already helped Brunotti to secure more partnerships around Europe. It has started working with Intersport as a direct customer in Greece, which could help to spread Brunotti in other countries since the Intersport licensee in Greece, the Fourlis group, holds Intersport licensing rights in other countries from Cyprus to Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey. Brunotti will also be delivered directly to Sport-Master in Denmark from this summer. And the company is preparing its entry in the U.K. market, either through agents or its own office.
At the same time, Brunotti has been upgrading its business in the Netherlands. It has quit delivering to the Makro chain in the Netherlands and instead teamed up with De Bijenkorf, a group of department stores. Peter Dijkema, commercial director at Brunotti, has added the Benelux countries to his portfolio following last year's departure of Peter Korver for Hi-Tec Sports.
The brand has also broadened its potential with the NMTC range, which stands for « No Matter The Conditions.” It is described as a range of fashion apparel with some integrated function, sold to jeans and fashion stores. NMTC made up about 15 percent of the company's sales in 2013 and is meant to contribute strongly to targeted annual growth rates of 20 to 25 percent for the coming years.
