Helly Hansen has put an end to its distribution and licensing agreement with the Dutch-based Unlimited Sports Group (USG) for the Benelux countries, Germany and Austria. The Norwegian brand has already taken over sales, marketing and distribution in all four markets and it will operate directly in all of them with wholly-owned subsidiaries from next January.
USG, which has been Helly Hansen's partner for these countries since January 2009 through an entity called Norsk Sport, will remain a retail partner for the Norwegian brand in the Benelux market. USG runs several sports retail formats in the Netherlands and Belgium, from Perry Sport to Aktiesport, Primo and more. It will continue to handle Helly Hansen sales to these chains and partner stores.
Borre Hegbom, who is in charge of Helly Hansen's business in Scandinavia, is now also supervising the group's activities in the Benelux and the German-speaking countries. An office and showroom were opened in Munich in September and more showrooms will follow in the other markets.
Separately, Helly Hansen has opened a subsidiary in Russia, based in Moscow. It is headed by Igor Roganovic, who was previously at Delta Sport, the former distributor of Nike and partner of Intersport in Russia. Helly Hansen opened its first store in the country a few weeks ago in Moscow's Raikin Plaza and another will open this month in the Galeria mall in Saint Petersburg.
Helly Hansen's strategy in Russia will be a combination of own retail and sales to third-party retailers. It previously had a distribution agreement with Sportmaster, the leading sports retailer in Russia, but this was terminated three years ago and since then Helly Hansen has been selling directly to Sportmaster, Intersport and a few other accounts in Russia.
The Russian investment comes as Helly Hansen continues to sharply increase sales. So far this year the group's turnover has risen by more than 12 percent compared with the same period last year. The market that stands out most is the U.S., where Helly Hansen again doubled its sales after hefty increases in the last two years.
