After three years of losses, Titus, the German skateboarding company, has closed down its wholesale distribution business and divested nearly all other side activities to concentrate exclusively on retailing.
Just three years ago Titus chalked up sales of about €70 million, with a raft of production, distribution and marketing companies. However, the company has been hammered by the investments of more established brands in the skating market. A shake-up completed late last year has reduced the payroll from about 550 to 130 people, while sales shrunk to about €45 million, including Frontline, the mail order business that Titus owns at 75 percent.
To begin with, Titus shuttered ASAP, No Limit and TDG, three distribution units which sold a spate of hard-core skate and fashion-oriented brands, with offices in several other European countries. The distribution deals were partly taken over by 24/7, a company set up by Julius Dittmann, son of Titus Dittmann, the former high-school teacher who founded Titus. All of the international offices were closed down.
The company also stopped sourcing products for other brands like Santa Cruz, because this business was consistently loss-making. The production unit now deals exclusively with the company’s two own brands, Titus and Rules. Titus’ logistics arm, which employed about 220 employees, was sold off to a specialist company last year.
This leaves mostly retail activities, including a mail order and internet sales business and a network of 11 company-owned stores and 25 franchises, but most the outlets should become franchises at some stage. Although the Titus stores carry many labels, they are the exclusive sales outlets for the Titus brand itself, which has annual sales of about €1.5 million. The company has also kept some other activities like Titus TV and an events agency, which help to support the brand.
For the time being the company will continue to concentrate on the German market, hoping to reach break-even this year. In a few years it may begin to explore international openings again, starting with small-scale retail ventures.
Titus, which narrowly missed a stock market introduction 5 years ago, is still owned at 68 percent by Titus Dittmann and his wife, but two private equity firms came on board in 2001 and Titus is now looking for yet more capital to boost the cleaned-up business.
