There were strong rumors at the ISPO show earlier this month that Rossignol’s new owner, Quiksilver, is putting up for sale three secondary brands – Dynastar, Lange and Look – which have been working together as a separate division of the group. Tecnica Group or one of its shareholders was said to be interested in the acquisition. Jean-François Gautier, Rossignol’s recently appointed chief executive, denied these rumors at the show, stating that Quiksilver wants to maintain and reinforce its multi-brand approach.
In fact, Rossignol is back-tracking from a previous plan to take various functions away from Dynastar’s office in Sallanches to centralize them at Rossi’s head office in Voiron. Dynastar will keep its own R&D, product development, marketing and sales staff in Sallanches under a new general manager, Thierry de Chalvron, who previously headed up its Look ski bindings operations. The latter will be run by the local factory manager, Bernard Graçedieux, who will report directly to Gautier. De Chalvron will report to Bernard Liatti, who remains as chairman of Dynastar, responsible for all the ski hardware operations of the group.
On the other hand, the head office of Lange in Montebelluna is being streamlined with the departure of about ten people over the next few weeks. This ski boot subsidiary will be run by Olivier Ravassard, who was previously in charge of Kerma, Rossignol’s ski pole business in Aosta. He replaces Giuseppe Pengo, who is retiring at the age of 64.
In another change of management, Andrea Mainardi, recently named as vice president of softgoods for the Rossignol Group, is leaving this position after a trial period. The Italian executive will probably be reassigned to new functions within Quiksilver.
Meanwhile, Rossignol has announced the selection of a big new site at Saint Etienne de Saint Geoirs, near Grenble, for a big new logistic platform that will handle all the winter sports equipment now disseminated in 17 warehouse of the group all over Europe. It will become operational at the beginning of 2007. It will be extended to 36,000 square meters at the beginning of 2008, by which time it will employ 120-130 people, growing to about 200 at peak times.
