Eric Yung, who has been with Polartec for eight years, acting most recently as European sales director, will add responsibility for customer service following the departure of Juan Carlos Gonzalez, the former director of international sales, at the beginning of April. Yung will continue to work out of Polartec Europe's office in Marseille together with Alessandro Perseo, who is reporting to him as European marketing director.
Creating a new role, Polartec has hired Katrin Bojarski as European product manager. An expert in textile management and technology, she worked for more than six years for Vaude in its hardware department, acting most recently as product manager for sleeping systems. She has also accumulated experience in garments, backpacks and tents.
Another official of Polartec based in Spain, Sergio Morales, left the company in January to move into another segment of the textile business. He was acting as sales and marketing manager for Spain, Portugal, Greece, the Middle East and Latin America. In the U.S., Polartec's former global marketing director, Allon Cohne, left the company last December, and he has not yet been replaced. Cohne has become chief marketing officer of Vibram, overseeing marketing initiatives in the U.S. and internationally.
In spite of the recent departures, Polartec is set to launch a big global campaign later this year to celebrate the fact that it has used one billion recycled bottles in the production of its textiles since it first launched its ground-breaking Polarfleece fabric with Patagonia in 1993. Running under the “Thanks for that” tagline, it will be presented to the trade at the OutDoor show in Friedrichshafen before reaching the public in the autumn.
According to company officials, Polartec is currently using recycled yarns in 60 percent of the fabrics that it produces at its rebuilt U.S. factory at Lawrence, compared with only 10 percent ten years ago, thanks to progress in engineering processes.
