A new sales subsidiary of the Japanese group for the Italian market, Mizuno Italia, will start up on Jan. 10, allowing the group to use synergies with other sales subsidiaries in Europe. It will be led by Mark Kaiway, a Canadian-born Mizuno veteran who has been running the company's German subsidiary for the past couple of years, after acting as head of sports for Europe. Company officials were unable to tell us who is going to be his successor in the German post.
To go ahead with the new operation, Mizuno has finalized a contract to take over its Italian distributor, Alto, which has been in charge of its non-golf products since 1989, with excellent results to this date. Focusing only on Mizuno and targeting the high end of the market, Alto has managed to keep its revenues at an annual level of around €20 million. Alto has been particularly successful in performance-oriented running, football, volleyball, rugby and swimwear, besides Mizuno's Breathe Thermo line of technical activewear.
Mizuno's golf range will continue to be distributed in Italy by Intergolf. Alto has been discussing a partial or total takeover of its operations by Mizuno for some time. The company takes its name from its founder, Marco Altissimo. His son Luca ran it for a long time until his premature death in 2011, at the age of 49 years. His sister Antonella has managed it since then.
