Effective Jan. 1, MBT will operate its own subsidiary for the Austrian market. The Swiss brand of toning shoes will therefore end its cooperation with the current distributor, Austro Masai Vertriebs GmbH, by the end of the year. MBT has picked Hubertus Effinger as the new country manager; he started working on Dec. 1. A former sales manager in the country for companies such as Geox, New Balance and Life Fitness, he will report to Markus Walt, MBT’s manager in charge of the German-speaking countries. The newly created operations will get support from the German subsidiary, especially in marketing as Frederike Taprogge, the German marketing manager, will also head the marketing for Austria.