The German company's new Kett Fit program, which is scheduled to be launched initially in its home market next August, will allow new customers to download a video to optimize the benefits of the new equipment, to undergo a complete health check and to hire a personal coach for free for an initial period of four weeks. Recruited from a local health club, the coach may be subsequently retained for a fee.
While working on its future implementation in other countries such as Italy and the Benelux, Kettler is banking on this original new program to help push its sales in Germany, where it already has a dominant position. Its sales of home fitness equipment were flat last year in Germany, where the market is estimated to have shrunk by between 2 and 4 percent, after growing by 8 to 9 percent in 2009.
Home fitness represents about one-half of the Kettler group's total sales. The group's total sales improved by about 10 percent to €300 million in 2010, but its sales outside Germany grew by 20 percent. The management attributes this primarily to an adaptation of the product line to the tastes and requirements of foreign markets, using a design studio in Milan.
Creating a new position, Kettler hired a couple of years ago a well-known industrial designer who has been specializing in the sport sector, Cristof Ronge, to act as design and innovation manager. He has been developing a cleaner and clearer design language for all the segments of Kettler's product range. Working with two universities, Kettler will also come out with some highly innovative new products at the Fibo trade show in Cologne next year.
Kettler's image and market positioning are also expected to benefit from the opening of about 100 more shop-in-shops this year, adding to the 200-plus already operating in Germany and to 150 abroad. And the management hopes to do at least 10 percent more business with the retail members affiliated with Intersport International and Sport 2000 International, with which Kettler has deals in place for special make-ups. The contract with Sport 2000 was signed at the end of last year.
Kettler has a new distributor in Romania and is trying to do more business in emerging markets. While it already has a presence in Hong Kong and other Asian markets; it exhibited for the first time last week at Ispo China, where it had a positive dialogue with a new Chinese sports retail chain. Because of space constraints and the absence of other companies in the same category, its booth at the fair was very small and poorly located, however.
