Brunotti Europe, the Dutch-based action sports group, intends to step tup investments in marketing and to widen its international reach after several financial partners have come on board. Greenfield Capital Partners and CommonWealth Investments have become shareholders in Brunotti along with Theo Dietz, the well-known Dutch executive who earned his stripes in the action sports industry as a long-time shareholder of JSI, the former licensee for O'Neill in Europe.
The Dutch company was previously owned by Henk Bergsma, Hans Völlmer and Peter Dijkema, who remain shareholders and managers. Bergsma, Brunotti's chief executive, declined to provide further details on the spread of shares, but said that he had become a minority shareholder.
Dietz will become a member of Brunotti's advisory board. The new financial resources and others should enable Brunotti to move into a new phase of its expansion, which picked up in the last years after Bergsma cleaned up the business and divested annex brands to focus on Brunotti.
The company reached sales of about €30 million last year and nearly 70 percent of the turnover was generated outside the Netherlands, but several large markets have yet to be covered, such as the U.K. and Spain. These two countries are among the priorities set by the company, along with the west coast of France.
Heightened investments are meant to upgrade several aspects of Brunotti's activities, with the target of becoming one of the five leading players in the European action sports market. This will entail improvements in purchasing, marketing, and the expansion of Brunotti's international sales team
