Dimitris Matemtzis, who has done an excellent job as country manager of Champion Europe in Greece, has been appointed to the new position of manager of Southern Europe and the Middle East. He will be in charge of the whole Mediterranean Basin – excluding Italy and France but including Spain and Portugal, where Champion is looking for a new country manager to succeed the departing Andreu de la Mano.
Champion Europe, which is based in Italy, already created a Northern European region three years ago, centralizing operations in Stockholm. Matemtzis will take care of the Iberian peninsula until the new Spanish country manager is found. His territory will comprise Turkey, Cyprus and Bulgaria.
This will coincide with the appointment of the company’s first distributor in Bulgaria, MaxSport2000, under a 4-year agreement that became effective last Jan. 1. The company, which is responsible for retail and wholesale distribution, opened the first Champion store in Sofia last January. Six others are planned in the country.
Champion opened its first Greek store in Athens last August and followed with another one last month. Champion already has 6 stores in Romania, but it is running that fast-growing market directly from Italy. It has licensed distribution agreements in Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzgovina. Further agreements in the region are expected in the course of 2008.
The company already has a sales subsidiary in Hungary, as well as six locations. Last February Champion hired a country manager for Hungary, Klara Berta, who worked previously with Nike’s distributor in the country.
