Giovanni Lato is leaving as European general manager of Icon Health & Fitness, based in Italy, after nearly 13 years in this position, citing differences with the U.S. management on strategic issues, but he is quitting on good terms. He will be looking at different options for his future career.
Renaud Grout is taking over his position, and he will continue to be based in France. He has been in charge of European marketing and of international business development since 2002, handling relations with distributors in Russia and the Middle East. Grout became the manager of Icon’s French subsidiary in 1997, after leaving the management of Prince France. Since then Icon’s sales in France have risen fourfold to nearly €21 million, compared with €23 million in Italy where Angelo Cravero will continue to be in charge of the national market.
Excluding the mass market, Icon claims an 18 percent share in a European home fitness market valued at around €680 million at retail. Grout’s goal is to raise to €150 million the turnover of Icon Health & Fitness Europe in three years’ time, as compared to about €80 million during the current financial year. Icon’s European sales will be more or less flat this year, in spite of a big decline in the tough German market, where the management changed recently.
Icon’s main competitor, Kettler, raised its global sales of home fitness products by about 4 percent last year, thanks mainly to foreign expansion. Its sales in Germany declined by 4-5 percent, in line with market trends, affected by the tough economy and by a shift in sports participation from home fitness to Nordic fitness outdoor. Kettler’s home fitness operations are led by Frank Koch, formerly in charge of Icon’s German subsidiary.
Kettler, whose global home fitness equipment sales are roughly estimated at around €130 million, with some 60 percent of the turnover generated outside Germany, recently hired a new distributor in China, Premier Concept, and it is about to sign deals also in Australia and India. It has a new importer in Sweden, as previously reported, and in the Middle East. The brand is performing particularly well in Denmark, Finland, Russia and other parts of Eastern Europe. At the last ISPO, the company showed a new range of accessories with a colorful new display.
