Skins has reorganized some of its management and distribution in the last months, in an effort by the Australian compression apparel brand to become more efficient and to raise its profit margins.
The changes include the departure of Christian Gut, previously chief marketing officer, and Matz Bachmann, former chief operations officer. Gut has since become senior business consultant for digital transformation at Odlo International. Bachmann, who stayed at Skins for nearly eight years, became managing director of Testex, the Swiss textile testing institute.
Their functions have been split between three executives. Ben Fitzmaurice, previously partner in a law firm, became chief operations officer in May. Fitzmaurice, who specializes in sports law and intellectual property, was directly involved with Skins in previous years as a lawyer. He has taken over Bachmann's responsibilities previously unrelated to sales, and the execution of the marketing strategy.
Pär Westerlind, who joined Skins last year to become design and product director, has added strategy from the start of this year. He was previously in design for brands including Odlo and Kjus. Emmanuel Lorenzato, previously French and then European sales manager, has become global sales director.
At the same time, Skins has reorganized its business in the U.K., which was a growth driver when the brand got started in Europe more than ten years ago. It has teamed up with Ninety9, a specialist distribution company in Cardiff, to handle its wholesale business while building a team business.
Skins is keeping its subsidiary in the U.K. to take care of invoicing and to manage marketing in conjunction with Ninety9. The Welsh company previously built a significant teamwear business for Under Armour. David Ling, who was one of the earliest European managers hired by Skins and the brand's former U.K. managing director, left the company two years ago to retire. The U.K. business is now supervised directly by Lorenzato.
The company's Swiss operation remains its head office and the center of global activities.
