The two industry veterans, Serge Darcy and Stéphane Janssoone, worked together at Compex, the supplier of electronic muscle stimulation equipment. Darcy, a 57-year-old executive with a longer experience, has set up his own distribution company, called MedAtletic, while 38-year-old Janssoone, who worked at Cefar-Compex until last year, is now running Sigmax Europe, a subsidiary of a Japanese group, Nippon Sigmax, that sells the Zamst brand of medical orthopedics.
Darcy ran Compex for five years until 2005, when it was taken over by a big American group in 2005, but he also held leading positions before and afterwards at Salomon, New Balance, NBA Europe and Heelys. Based in Annecy, Darcy is now distributing three different brands exclusively on the French market - I-Tech, Mio and Powerbreathe - riding on the big wellness and diet management trend and covering sporting goods retailers as well as the medical circuit.
Offering a good price/performance ratio, I-Tech can be described as the major Italian competitor of Compex. Mio is a sophisticated wristop computer, developed by a Canadian inventor, that measures the heart beat as well as the consumption of calories. It is making its first foray into Europe through Darcy, who is also covering the Spanish market through agents.
Powerbreathe is described as an inspiratory muscle trainer that can improve the sportsman’s performance or help solve breathing problems. It has been developed by a British company, Hab International, that has been a distributor of Compex and Polar in its home market. This company opened its own German subsidiary last November and is gearing up to enter the U.S. market.
While Mio and Powerbreathe are only ten years old, Zamst has been around in Japan since 1992. It is a line of orthoses specifically developed for sportsmen, allowing them total freedom of movement while preventing injuries or helping them to recover from injuries. Jansoone introduced the line to the European market at the Ispo show in Munich last February, presenting it as a new segment that sports retailers can cover to round up their business.
In Japan, Sigmax generates annual sales of about €65 million at more than 1,200 sports stores with Zamst, including those of big chains such as Alpen and Victoria. It is used by many athletes and endorsed by the national badminton and basketball federations.
Sigmax has also been Compex’ distributor in Japan in the past. As the Japanese leader in medical orthopedics, Sigmax competes on the world market with companies such as McDavid and Mueller Sports Medicine, which are already established and growing in Europe.
