One year before its 100th anniversary, Raichle, the traditional Swiss brand of footwear for outdoor activities run in former times by Werner Riethmann, will no longer trade in the market as before. Its development team will remain in place, but the trade name will be changed to Mammut, starting with the Spring/Summer 2009 collection. The name Raichle will be preserved as a sub-brand on the tongue of the shoes as a symbol of tradition and technological know-how.
Raichle has reportedly developed very well since its takeover five years ago by Switzerland’s Mammut Sports Group (MSG), growing nicely and reaching an annual volume of around 300,000 pairs. With the latest move, Mammut is further pursuing its strategy of building up its own brand name, which already stands for high-end mountaineering equipment and apparel. It has already applied this policy to other brands it acquired such as Ajungilak, the Norwegian supplier of sleeping bags, and Lucido, a brand that makes LED headlights for outdoor use.
As part of this group strategy, Mammut recently acquired the U.K. distributor of Raichle, Outdoor Elements, and placed it in charge of selling all the products of the group except for its climbing gear, which continues to be distributed by DMM (see SGI Europe of May 20).
Following the idea of «Mammut brand outside, Raichle know-how inside,» the company is preparing a completely revamped collection of outdoor shoes, which will be presented at the OutDoor show in Friedrichshafen, Germany. More than one-half of the collection is completely new and features several innovative features including a new sole technology and a new lightweight construction for hiking and mountaineering shoes.
Raichle was founded in 1909 in Switzerland. It was acquired in 2003 by Mammut from Kneissl & Friends, the then-troubled Austrian group of sports brands. Shortly before the takeover, Kneissl decided to halt the marketing of ski boots under the Raichle flag and concentrated the brand on outdoor shoes only.
Mammut scored very well in the first four months of this year, with total sales rising by 15.3 percent to 68.0 million Swiss francs (€42.3-$65.8m) during the period, including a 30 percent increase for the clothing segment alone. It made a strong contribution to its parent company, the Conzzeta Group, whose consolidated sales grew by only 3.2 percent to 489.1 million CHF (€304.1m-$472.9m). In terms of constant currencies they rose by 7.4 percent. The group’s operating profit declined because of special costs incurred by its foam materials business unit.
