Conzzeta Holding, parent group of Mammut Sports Group with its brands Mammut (outdoor equipment and apparel), Raichle (footwear) and Toko (ski waxes, snow care products and cross-country ski apparel), raised its sales by 18.3 percent to 1,507 million Swiss francs (€952.8m-$1,445m) in 2007. The biggest growth took place in Conzzeta’s sheet metal processing systems unit, but all other divisions increased sales as well.
Mammut Sports Group (MSG) raised global sales by 7.5 percent to CHF 177.1 million (€112m-$170.2m). Except for Toko, the group thrived in the difficult 2006-07 winter season despite overstocks of winter-related products. According to MSG’s chief executive, Rolf Schmid, the sports brand became less dependent on the Swiss home market, whose share of global sales is now at 25 percent after being around 50 percent a few years ago.
The German-speaking core markets, including fast-growing Germany and Austria, where Mammut now is considered to be the market leader overall, ahead of Salewa, still represent 60 percent of MSG’s entire sales. Schmid says that other countries outside the region were growing faster than the core markets but from a smaller level. Surprisingly, Mammut’s sales were up in the Swiss home market where the brand is undisputed market leader by almost 10 percentage points.
Schmid argues that sales would have been even more favorable in Switzerland if the Swiss Army had purchased climbing equipment and other goods to the extent it had done in previous years. Unfortunately, major contracts with the local government are not consistent from year to year. According to the company’s information, sales growth would have been well beyond the double-digit mark if the Army had purchased as much as in the years before.
Schmid was not willing to give more detailed information on specific markets, but hinted that the Mammut brand is growing faster than Raichle outside the German-speaking countries. This is partly due to the fact that MSG had some difficulties last year with Raichle’s importers in Eastern Europe such as the one in. Poland, which had to give up because of poor snow conditions. Another victim last year was Toko, which fell well short of the previous year’s sales.
Overall, Europe continues to be Conzzeta Group’s most important market with a 69.1 percent share of total sales, but for the first time ever Asia outpaced Conzzeta’s business in the Americas with a share of 14.3 percent. Global earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) grew from CHF 71.1 million to CHF 161.4 million (€102m$155m), but there was an extraordinary gain of CHF 56.6 million (€35.8m-$54.4m) from real estate sales outside Zurich. The operating margin was 8.8 percent.
