Asics has appointed Johann Fischer, formerly in charge of Fischer Russia, to become its general manager in Russia and the CIS countries. The Japanese company wants to double the size of its Russian business - in an unspecified time frame - and establish Asics as a performance sports brand in the country, investing heavily in staff, logistics, marketing and brand awareness.
Asics, which was previously distributed by Sportmaster, has had its own business in Russia since the end of 2008, but the previous country manager, Igor Fomin, left in 2013 to head up the operations of the Regatta Group in Russia. Fischer built up the Austrian ski brand of the same name (a coincidence) in Russia from 2003 until 2012.
As described in our market research report, a draft of which is available to browse through at our stand at Ispo Munich (EW03, between the West Entrance and Hall B1), the running market has just started to emerge in some of the largest Russian cities. Participation in the sport is rising markedly on the back of investments by suppliers as well as the government.
Fischer will report directly to Stefan Heinrich, former general manager at Asics Austria, who was appointed as head of emerging markets for Asics Europe last August.
