The founding family of Stöckli Swiss Sports AG, established in 1935, has sold all of its shares to another Swiss family of entrepreneurs, the Kaufmanns. The latter have held an unspecified, but apparently substantial interest in Stöckli, an interesting company that has been making bicycles and skis and running a chain of sporting goods stores for more than 20 years.
The Kaufmanns now hold all the shares in Stöckli. The majority went to 31-year-old Diego Kaufmann, who has been on Stöckli's supervisory board along with his mother Eva since early last year. They replaced Diego's father, Hans Kaufmann, who died in the autumn of 2012. He had been the chief executive of Ackermann, a Swiss mail-order retailer, which was sold to the German Otto Group, or to be more precise, to Otto's Austrian branch, Unito. After his exit from Ackermann in 1989, he invested in various Swiss companies including Stöckli.
As for the Stöcklis, they apparently saw that the right moment had come to divest after a few strategic changes had been put in place, including a stronger focus on summer products. Stöckli made some efforts lately in the development of its own line of e-bikes. More importantly, the company intends to become more international and has, therefore, invested in its sales and marketing operations.
The new owners are looking for a new managing director with experience in international business development. Beni Stöckli, junior will continue to run the business until a new chief is found. Simultaneously, his parents, Beni senior and Rita, have stepped down from the supervisory board.
For 2013, Stöckli booked sales exceeding 65 million Swiss francs (€53.24m-$72.49m). So far, the company's distribution has been highly selective. Besides its 15 corporate stores in Switzerland, it has been working with just 42 retailers in 37 countries. Forty percent of the ski production is sold abroad. The new owners intend to continue the company's manufacturing operations in the Swiss canton of Luzern, consisting of two production plants that employ some 250 people.
