After growing by more than 50 percent since Mark Hammersley, a former president of Speedo, took the helm of the company five years ago, Zoggs, the Australian brand of high-end swim goggles, has hired two other seasoned industry veterans in the last few months and taken other initiatives to expand further internationally and to refine its product range.
Martin Francis, a former top executive of Clarks, Reebok and Hush Puppies, has joined Zoggs at its head office in the U.K. in the new position of international sales manager, responsible for Europe, the Middle East and Africa and for the development of distant markets in Japan, South Korea and India. Additionally, Rob Davies, a British executive who has worked for Speedo in the U.K. and Australia for eight years, has been named general manager of the company for the Asia-Pacific region, based in Hong Kong.
Meanwhile, The Kendal Group (TKG), the fund owned by the Gestetner brothers that took over Zoggs in 2003, has formed a joint venture in Hong Kong, called TKG Asia, with its local sourcing agent, Blue Fusion Group. It previously owned a 20 percent stake in the company. All the design and development functions will be consolidated there, instead of being shared with Zoggs' head office in the U.K. The operation will be run by Neil McConnochie, son of the brand's founder.
Zoggs is performing relatively well in the U.K., where its sales are set to grow this year by 9 percent. Elsewhere, its revenues are increasing at an annual rate of more than 20 percent, but Hammersley feels that the brand can grow even faster internationally. In particular, he sees more room for expansion in Australia, where the brand was born in 1992. To help Davies in his new mission, Zoggs has hired three more salespeople in Australia and set up a subsidiary in New Zealand.
While Francis is talking to potential distributors and licensees in Denmark, Russia and the Balkans, Davies is concentrating on Malaysia and other parts of Southeast Asia. For the U.S. and Canada, a new company, Vision Products International, recently took over a license for Zoggs from a previous partner, but it continues to work there through an American consultant, Steven Davis, who comes from Warnaco. He also provides useful input on product development.
Zoggs is already doing well in Germany and Austria through a distributor, Filser Sport & Marketing, which specializes in triathlon. In a rather original setup that has turned out to be very effective for the brand, Filser's action is supported by a sales manager employed by the U.K. office, Mathias Angele. Building up on its initial market launch in Germany in the triathlon segment, Zoggs more recently introduced its 7-year-old swimwear line and other products in Germany and Austria, where it is now working with the retailers affiliated with Intersport and Sport 2000.
To avoid head-on confrontation with the major players in the swimwear market, Zoggs has entered some other new markets with its junior line before adding other items to its local offerings. In most new markets, the brand tends to come up first with its goggles and other products before adding its adult swimwear once its presence in the market has reached a more mature stage. Launched several years ago, swimwear represents about 30 percent of sales now in the U.K., but the ratio is much lower in Australia, for example.
One of Zoggs' strengths in the swimwear sector is a line of supportive swimwear for women, called Swimshapes, that features graduated padding and full-foam, wired and removable cups. However, the use of special lenses for its goggles remains the biggest asset for the brand. Its most recent range features polarized sun lenses and curved lenses for wider peripheral vision. An important new development in lens technology will come out later this month.
