In a bid to grow its business substantially in Europe, Under Armour has segmented the region into three sub-regions and decided how to sell its products in the five major European markets. The fast-growing American challenger of Nike and Adidas has concluded a major distribution agreement for the Italian market with the Oberalp Group, but it wants to set up its own sales offices in France and Spain. UA already has its own offices in the U.K. and Germany.
A new Northern Europe sub-region will comprise the U.K. and Ireland, the Benelux countries and the Nordic countries. This territory will be led by a regional director, Lee Devon, who joined the company in Manchester in March. He has been with the Nike group since 1999, spending the last six years in Dubai. He previously worked for Nike in the U.K. and at the EMEA headquarters in the Netherlands, and was in charge of Umbro in Northern Europe and Russia until 2010.
Raphael Lefort, another manager who recently joined the group, will manage UA's Sub-Mediterranean region, made up of the new subsidiaries in France and Spain and distribution partnerships with Oberalp for Italy and Unlimited Sport for Greece and Northern Cyprus.
Lefort joined UA a few months ago, after setting up a company near Nice. After spending one year at Decathlon, he joined Adidas in 1998 and worked for the group until four years ago in various roles in France, Germany and Greece. He coordinated sales directors throughout Europe and set up the subsidiaries in the Balkans.
Daniel Pustina will be in charge of the DACH sub-region, overseeing the German-speaking markets. That includes the company's current German subsidiary, which is also responsible for the Austrian market. A subsidiary in Switzerland will be added in 2017.
Like Lefort, Pustina comes from the Adidas Group, working in marketing and sales between 2004 and late last year. He handled key accounts for Adidas for seven years, and he has been handling key accounts for UA at the company's office in Munich since December.
The three regional directors will report to Chris Bate, vice president and managing director of Under Armour Europe, based in Amsterdam.
The French market, where UA has a big contract with Go Sport, has been covered until now by a general agent. The Swiss market has been covered by a distributor controlled by Montana Sport. Spain, Portugal and Andorra have been covered by a distributor, Alnisa Sport Group, under a contract that is due to expire at the end of 2016.
UA's decision not to renew that contract has led Alnisa to stop deliveries of UA's spring/summer 2016 collection, according to the Spanish press, and it may lead to the company's bankruptcy. A Spanish trade magazine, Tradesport, said that UA's new Spanish subsidiary will be run by Jens Ullbrich, former marketing director of Reebok for Iberia, but UA declined to confirm the information.
The Italian market has been covered for the last ten years by a distribution company, Sport Box, whose contract expires at the end of this year. The new Italian distribution contract with Oberalp was signed on May 18, after one year of discussions. It starts with deliveries in 2017 and calls for the opening of 20 Under Armour Brand Houses in shopping malls and major shopping streets all over Italy.
Owned by the Oberrauch family, Oberalp obtained the contract on the strength of its achievements with distributed brands such as Speedo and corporate brands such as Salewa and Dynafit. The company has committed itself to various initiatives intended to boost UA's brand awareness in Italy through trade and digital marketing, advertising, sponsorships, events and public relations. Oberalp has reportedly set a marketing budget of €50 million for the seven years of the current contract.
Officials of Oberalp and Under Armour declined to comment on reports that the two partners want to raise UA's annual sales in Italy from the current level of €15 million to €100 million by 2023, doubling the share represented by the Italian market from 4 to 8 percent of the group's sales in Europe.
Last September, UA told investors that it wanted to raise its total revenues from $3.1 billion in 2014 to $7.5 billion in 2018, with revenues generated outside the U.S. rising from $270 million to $1.5 billion over the same period. Europe would be a big part of the project.
Meanwhile, Under Armour Europe and Intersport International launched a long-term strategic brand partnership at Intersport's Go-to-Market meeting in Copenhagen last month. Separately, UA opened a new showroom in an iconic brick-stone building in Vienna.
