Karhu, the Finnish sports brand, is relaunching its performance running range and its lifestyle offering in a few European countries, after it opened a European head office in Amsterdam last year and built up its sales force in the Netherlands and Germany.
The investments come after the Arese family, which has distributed the Asics brand in Italy for more than three decades, acquired a controlling interest in 2014 in Karhu Holding – the Dutch company that owns the rights for the brand in all markets other than Iberia. Huub Valkenburg, the former Reebok manager who bought the rights with a partner in 2008, remains a shareholder and the group's chief executive.
On the back of the deal, some of Karhu's operations have moved to the Netherlands and Italy. Karhu's European business has been centralized in Amsterdam under the supervision of Emanuele Arese, the son of Franco Arese, the Italian middle-distance runner who built up Asics in Italy.
Remko Nouws, who was formerly a European sales executive for lifestyle at Asics, became global lifestyle manager at Karhu last year, based in Amsterdam. The office employs seven people, including Arese and Nouws along with salespeople responsible for the Benelux countries, marketing, finance and other central functions.
Along with the sales people for the Benelux countries, Karhu has hired two sales representatives in Germany and aims to have seven to cover the German-speaking countries. Heiner Ibing, former managing director for Brooks in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, was brought on board as a consultant to help build up Karhu's sales force in these countries.
The current push is focusing on these markets as well as Scandinavia, where there is stronger awareness of the Finnish brand. Göran Bergsten, former general manager of Karhu Nordic, has set up an independent agency in Sweden, Brgstn Agency, from September. He is handling sales of the Karhu brand in the Nordics as an agent.
Meanwhile, Karhu's subsidiary in Sweden has been closed down, and the European distribution center was moved from Västervik in Sweden to a location near Venlo in the Netherlands. The current European infrastructure for the Finnish brand further includes a development center in Montebelluna, where Karhu makes its own lasts and mock-ups.
The latest sales push in the sports fashion market comes with a new visual identity for the Finnish brand, which is reaching its 100th year in 2016. Karhu has hired an agency to tweak its bear logo (Karhu means bear in Finnish) and it has adopted a new tagline, The Finnish Sportsbear, although this will be mostly used in the wholesale trade and less in consumer-facing marketing.
At the same time, Karhu is continuing to invest in its Fulcrum technology and the return of the Ortix technology. Its target is to break into the top seven of running footwear brands in the Benelux countries and Germany.
The Arese family runs a separate entity that functions as the Italian distributor for the Karhu brand. It sells Karhu's performance range along with lifestyle products and team sports apparel. The brand was at the Pitti Uomo fair in Florence in January and got some trendy accounts on board.
The entity run by the Arese family in Italy has also obtained a Europe-wide license for Karhu-branded team sports apparel. Their focus for the time being is on volleyball, for which they have built up contacts in the Italian market.
The Karhu brand still has several other licensing partners, such as Stadium for apparel in Sweden and three others in Finland: the Holmberg Group Oy for apparel, Truebell for fitness equipment and L-Tec for baseball, floorball and other team sports products.
As previously reported, Karhu has also struck a licensing deal starting in March with KFS Sport Oy, a partnership between several Finnish investors for Karhu-branded cross-country skis, boots and poles, covering Europe, Russia and CIS countries, Japan and South Korea.
