Völkl has reached an agreement with the vocal German trade unions to reduce production costs at its ultra-modern ski factory in Straubing, enabling the company to retain some German manufacturing for nearly all of its ranges. Völkl had previously outsourced production for some of its cheaper junior skis to the Chinese plant of K2, which acquired Marker and Völkl two years ago.
Under the previous employment rules, workers at the Straubing factory were rated on the same payment scale as Germany’s pampered car industry employees. The agreement reached last week puts an end to this very generous arrangement, requiring employees to work more hours without any pay rises and with lower vacation pay. On the other hand, Völkl guaranteed employment for at least 370 workers for the next 3 years.
When it started running 8 years ago, the factory in Straubing had an annual capacity of about 350,000 pairs of alpine skis, but it was severely stretched over the last years as Völkl pumped up its sales. This meant that the factory had to run at full blast and workers were kept busy on expensive night and weekend shifts.
Völkl is confident that its sales will rise again to about 480,000 pairs this season, although current market figures indicate that snow conditions failed to stimulate ski sales in the markets of Germany, Austria and Switzerland until December. Consumers apparently preferred to invest in cross-country ski equipment and in more comfortable ski boots. Some estimates point to a decline of about 5 percent in alpine ski sales for the region.
Due to the buoyant mood that has swept through the trade since the beginning of this year, however, the Germanic alpine ski market is still expected to expand for the full season. After a small dip, Völkl returned to a sales level of about 100,000 pairs in Germany during the Fall/Winter 2004/05 season, and it will be striving to retain that position this year, along with its supposed market leadership in Italy and Switzerland. The company sees more growth in Austria and Japan as well as in the USA, where Völkl believes it ranks second behind K2.
Meanwhile, the company has completed the move of Marker’s head office from Garmisch to Penzberg, virtually next door to K2’s offices. About 60 people were involved in the move, which did not entail any job losses. Independently of this, Andreas Weiss has become marketing manager for brand marketing at K2 Sports Europe, reporting to Peter Kuba who runs sales and marketing for the K2 brands in Europe. Andreas Threimer replaces him as marketing coordinator of K2 Snowboarding in Europe. Also, in Switzerland, Robert Wagner has replaced Philipp Schnell as sales manager for Marker and Völkl, responsible for controlled operations in Germany, Austria, Japan and North America. He was previously business unit managere at Völkl for skis and bindings.
