Kästle has doubled the range of its products for the next autumn/winter season. In March 2018, the Austrian ski manufacturer announced the arrival of a new majority shareholder from the Czech Republic, ConsilSport, which owns Sporten, a manufacturing company that produces about 100,000 pairs of alpine and cross-country skis annually. Parts of Kästle's production moved recently from Austria to the Czech Republic.
The new product lines include a collection of skis for children and teenagers, a new collection of women's skis called “Vogue,” a new alpine ski model and the first three Nordic ski models in many years.
Kästle managed to increase its total sales by 10 percent in 2018 from the previous year, selling a total of 15,000 to 20,000 skis. The company aims to increase that annual number to around 40,000 over the next five years.
Austria and the U.S., the company's most important markets, each account for 30 percent of total sales. In Germany, Kästle was until recently distributed by Scholz, a local sales agency. In Dec. 2018, Kästle hired two new sales representatives, one for the brand's alpine ski collection and one for the recently developed cross-country ski collection, to take charge of sales in the German market.
At a press conference held during the Ispo show in Munich, Kästle pointed out that it can produce up to 200,000 pairs of skis per year at Sporten's production site in the Czech Republic. Kästle continues to develop parts of its product range and to manufacture limited series of skis at its headquarters in Hohenems, Austria.
Kästle also announced that it had engaged Markus Meister for the newly created position of international business developer in January. The 42-year-old will be responsible for the product management of Kästle's cross-country and jump ski collections.
Meister was formerly sales manager and project manager for Powerslide's Nordic ski collection. At Amer Sports, he worked for two years as category and product manager for Amer's Nordic ski segment. Most recently, he was sales director at Holmenkol, the German marketer of ski wax and maintenance products.
