Hundreds of guests assembled at the party organized in Amsterdam two weeks ago to mark the forty years of Hi-Tec – one of the few European sports footwear companies that managed to build up a brand with global reach while still under family control.
Hi-Tec said it reached flat wholesale sales of about $254 million last year, combining the Hi-Tec brand with the Magnum protection footwear brand as well as private labels. The group managed sales growth of about 8 percent in North America, while its turnover declined by 2 percent in other countries.
To a large extent the get-together was a party for Frank van Wezel, the company's ebullient founder and chairman. The Dutchman outrocked many younger managers at the lively event, which was held with about 270 employees, distributors, business relations and family members at the Okura Hotel in the Dutch capital.
The anecdotes shared about Frank emphasized his infectious energy and relentless salesmanship. The owner never tired of pushing sales and constantly drove his teams to do the same, yet he apparently made plentiful and loyal friends along the way: the 92 year-old David Wolff, the company's first salesman, was said to have driven ten hours to join the party.
Van Wezel began his career after he obtained a business administration degree from Nijenrode Business University in the Netherlands. Aged just 19, he was the school's youngest graduate when he received his diploma. He then got started at the Windmill Fertilizer Works East Africa – an experience that encouraged him to set up business in Africa much earlier than most rivals in the sports market.
Van Wezel established his own shoe company in 1974 in the small town of Shoeburyness, in southeast England, after he failed to find adequate shoes to play squash in. Inter, as the company was then called, was among the first in Europe to source footwear in the Far East from the start. The company has sold nearly 20 million pairs of the former Inter-Squash shoe to date.
In the meantime, the company has broadened its range from court to outdoor and other sports, along with military footwear with the Magnum brand. The outdoor range was launched in the late seventies, supported by one of the first ever countrywide television commercials for sports footwear in the UK, with the slogan: “Four-wheel drive for your feet.”
The Hi-Tec brand itself hit the market in 1981 and a few years later the company moved to Southend-on-Sea, a few miles away from Shoeburyness on the Thames estuary. A major advantage of the location was an airport with a jet that could carry the Van Wezel family car, so the chairman could visit his Dutch friends more conveniently.
As the company required funds to support its expansion, Hi-Tec was launched on the stock market in 1988. However, Van Wezel became wary of all the administrative obligations required by the listing. As soon as he could afford it, Hi-Tec became a family-owned company again, in 2000.
This left more scope for the impulsive and personal management tactics deployed by Frank over the years. Distributors were often appointed on the basis of personal trust, and more than once the chairman went out of his way to provide financial support to partners and manufacturers – nearly always earning loyalty and friendship.
Among the Hi-Tec representatives from 51 countries in Amsterdam, many of the distributors have accompanied the expansion of Hi-Tec for several decades: The guests included managers from the New Zealand/Australian Denstock, which has been working with the Van Wezels for 26 years, and Argentina Sports Adventure, which has been on board for 24 years, among many others.
Family is another big theme at the company, and all members are expected to contribute. Ed van Wezel, Frank's son and the group's current chief executive, recalled how he was sent out during international trade fairs when he was still a young boy to collect the catalogs of competing sports shoe brands. “They won't say no to a child,” his father chuckled. Frank's daughters, Monique and Françoise, both helped to man the stand – always at the ready to woo customers or even to turn up their sleeves and do the washing up.
Mary van Wezel, Frank's late first wife and mother of his three children, was lauded as another crucial, behind-the-scenes contributor to the Hi-Tec story. She passed away in Spain in 2005. Caroline van Wezel, the chairman's second wife, has taken on the role of Hi-Tec supporter-in-chief with gusto.
All three of the Van Wezel children are still involved in the business, either directly or through their spouses. Françoise ran Hi-Tec's marketing for a number of years until she met her husband, Paul Brooks. They moved to California for Paul to run Hi-Tec USA and then the Magnum brand. He is currently preparing to run the group's activities in France, after the retirement of Benoît Dauverné, who built up Hi-Tec's French business over many years. Chris, the chairman's second son-in-law, was first placed in charge of sourcing, based in China, but he has returned to Europe to handle the group's growing licensing business from Amsterdam.
As for Ed, the chairman's son, he first had to undergo a series of sometimes unusual tests. Perhaps most challenging were the six months he spent assembling footwear at factories in South Korea, Taiwan, China and Vietnam. As Ed heard later, his father had told the factory managers that he was a problem child, who had to be taught discipline. Ed spent entire days half-crouched on tiny stools used by female seamstresses, and he shared dormitories with other workers.
After a few more comfortable stations, such as a German bank, the Hi-Tec warehouse and various sales and product assignments, Ed van Wezel was allowed to take over as chief executive. Martin Binnendijk, who had assumed that job since 2002, stepped aside as agreed (if Ed passed the tests) to become chief financial officer and chief operating officer. Among the most significant changes steered by the founder's son in his first years at the helm was Hi-Tec's move to Amsterdam in 2011, as well as an overhaul of the brand's visual identity.
Frank van Wezel and Hi-Tec have received numerous awards along the years. The latest include the Sports Footwear Brand of the Year 2014 at the Footwear Industry Awards in the U.K., as well as an honorary degree of business administration for Frank van Wezel from the Anglia Ruskin University last year.
