This big French franchise organization for ski rentals is speeding up its European expansion to have at least 150 affiliated stores outside France at the opening of the next ski season, compared with 70 foreign stores last year. Ski Set is already market leader in France with about 280 stores under contract in the country, and another 20 are expected to join Ski Set before the end of the year.
The foreign push is led from a subsidiary in Lausanne, Compagnie Internationale des Loueurs de Skis (CLS), with one employee and three roving representatives. Their main target is Austria, where Ski Set started off last winter with 25 members and an objective to reach 80 members this year. In Switzerland the buying group is hoping to increase its membership from about 30 to 45 stores this year, while the target for Italy has been set at up to 30 stores, compared with just two outlets at present.
Ski Set was established 12 years ago by a group of 7 French store owners, including some former French ski champions like Annie Famose and Leo Lacroix. They not only act as a buying group but also pre-sell rentals on the internet and to a wide range of tour operators.
Unlike most of their competitors, Ski Set only has stores in ski resorts. About 30 percent of their turnover consists of pre-sold rentals, and another sizeable chunk of the sales stems from special coupons which local partners hand out to their guests when they get to the resort.
The membership chiefly consists of independent stores, although it also comprises two groups of stores belonging to Annie Famose. Her own Ski Shop retail company boasts 40 stores in French resorts, while the Alpiski unit, which Famose acquired earlier this year, consists of 25 former Sport 2000 stores. Some of these outlets will continue to trade under the Alpiski banner.
Owing to its wide retail presence and exclusive agreements with leading French tour operators, like Pierre & Vacances, Ski Set believes that it commands a share of about 50 percent of all French ski rentals. This partly explains its appetite for foreign expansion and the nature of its foreign development. Ski Set is eager to establish its reputation with a harmonized formula throughout Europe, as customers are likely to change their destination from one year to the next.
Annie Famose herself plays an influential role inside the company, as a multi-store member and one of the shareholders in the CLS holding company, which controls part of Ski Set. The rest of CLS’ shares belong to the other founders of Ski Set founders and to Philippe Koiransky, general manager of the group, but the members own the majority of the shares.
