The Central European outdoor industry has been shaken by two more major management changes in the past few days:
- Maximilian Hofbauer left The North Face last week after working as its country manager for Austria, Germany and Switzerland. Hofbauer’s successor is Udo Heyder, so far sales manager for Germany and before executive of Invia, German importer of premium outdoor brands like Mountain Equipment, Gregory, Garmont and Bridgedale. Hofbauer, a former Schöffel executive, joined TNF in 1998 as its first general manager for the newly created German subsidiary. Before, this cult brand in the outdoor scene was sold by a visionary German importer of high-end labels, Dieter Klett.
- After three decades in the post, Anne Stummer-Schwegmann will be replaced as managing director of the German sales subsidiary of Fjällräven. By June, her successor will be Alexander Koska who still acts until the end of April as joint managing director of Salewa Germany, in charge of sales and marketing. At Fjällräven Deutschland, which also takes care of the Austrian market, Koska will additionally assume responsibility for international product management.
As reported, at Salewa Germany Koska will be succeeded by a former executive of Fischer, Stefan Rosenkranz. Fenix Outdoor, the parent group of Fjällräven, depends a lot on Fjällräven’s German business, which has come to account for one-third of the group’s wholesale revenues under Stummer’s management: However, a good part of the German sales were not done through Fjällräven GmbH, which also takes care of Fenix’ Primus stoves and Tierra apparel, but through Hanwag, the recently acquired footwear company led by Martin Nordin and by Jürgen Siegwarth, a former executive at Deuter and Meindl.
At Fischer, Rosenkranz will be replaced by Gerhard Leitner as the new man in charge of its alpine ski business. The 40-year-old joined Fischer as international sales manager for Japan and Scandinavia and became eventually commercial director of the alpine unit, but its marketing director, Gerald Palm, is said to be leaving the company as well. The present sales director, Daniel Steininger, will assume Palm’s responsibilities as marketing manager in addition to his current post. Meanwhile Fischer has appointed a new product manager for its growing free-style ski unit, Daniel Tanzer, who has already been involved in the research and development for the company in this field.
