Mizuno has announced the establishment of a subsidiary in Norway for all the Nordic markets. The new company, Mizuno Norge, will take over the Japanese brand's business in Norway as of next April 1 from Scantrade, which has been its distributor in the country for 18 years.
Before the end of next year, Mizuno Norge will also assume the distribution in Sweden, Denmark and Finland of all its products, excluding the golf segment, from its own French subsidiary. Sales of golf products will continue to be steered from the U.K., with Mizuno's general manager for the U.K., Dean Williams, taking responsibility for the Nordic countries as well.
Scantrade has been a successful distribution partner for Mizuno in Norway, especially in certain categories such as football. Mizuno will expand the current range of products sold in the market to include other sports categories. Børge Wtterland, the current brand manager for Mizuno for Scantrade, will move together with his team to the new company, taking on responsibility for all four Nordic markets.
The takeover of the distribution in Norway, which is a very technical market, follows similar recent moves by the Japanese company in Spain and Italy. Meanwhile, Mizuno has continued to boost the management of its new European office at Aschheim, near Munich, which currently has 16 employees.
One of the newest recruits is Maximilian Marten, who was appointed a couple of months ago European senior marketing manager, in charge also of communication and digital marketing. He came from Adidas, where he was part of the product team in the training category.
Several other new members of the European team are involved in product management including Menro Red, formerly based at the company's Dutch office, which now has a new sales manager, Hsing-Wang Lee. The latter previously had his own sports fashion store, Active Milan, and then worked for Agu, Mexx Sport and Nike.
