p14,15 Outdoor Big Bear:SGBGolf_NEW_template 01/06/2009 10:44 Page 14
Big Bear
Big Bear
Montesol Ltd T/A Big Bear MD Mitch Terleckyj isn't a man to mince his words. SGB
caught up with Mitch and found out more about Big Bear and business in general…
B
ig Bear distributes a range of brands, from snow sport-based or it is very hard for us to supply you.
(Spyder, Level, POC, SOS, Kask, Goode) to cycle-oriented (SiDi, The reaction was 'well how do we
POC Wheels, FRM, Pearl, POW, CicloSport) and straightforward know what we need? We don't know
outdoor (Cloudveil, and Mountainsmith); this breadth allows them to what the customer wants', which is a
trade with at least three seasons of gear, so they're not as affected ridiculous argument. If the dealer
by the seasonality of certain sports as some. don't know then who does? I don't
The company has seen healthy growth in recent years, and Mitch let SGB know how they are in business. In
in on some of the secrets of their success… this co-operative way, we
found a mutually agreeable
SGB: How has Big Bear grown? is the solution and go forward
two- or three-season approach key? together.
Mitch Terleckyj: Not particularly but it 90 percent of what we
helps smooth out fluctuations in sell is pre-ordered. Only
markets. Five years ago, we 10 percent of what we
started Montesol Ltd trading as supply just in time. We
Big Bear and we have grown moved from a 50-50
about 25 to 30 percent every model to a 90-10.
year since. We were lucky we
started with a reasonably good SGB: Do you not think
year and 3 or 4 staff. Now we that in a recession, just-
are up to about 15 of us and in-time will thrive and
have seen successful growth, pre-orders will drop?
year-on-year, despite the MT: For me there are
current situation. customers out there
We try to offer the who rely on just in
best value product in time. Someone walks into the shop, asks for something, they will
the middle to upper take a deposit, they will order it from you, you send it to them,
end of the they will want a discount, and in my experience in the last
market. We 20 years, that hasn’t worked.
sell value, no matter what price. We don't sell on There is a lot of growth out there, and there are a
discount. In fact, what we did very early on was take lot of losers. I think that the just in time model suits
away the discursives, the combative element of the losers, it doesn't necessarily work for the
business, away from the sales. We have one meeting winners. The winners are winning because they are
which had nothing to do with the product, which putting in big orders, they are getting good value,
had only to do with the terms and conditions. We and they are giving better customer service
get that meeting out of the way and that is put on because when a customer puts in an order, he
our database, our CRM system, and the customer gets it there and then or next day.
always gets the discount agreed. That lets us It's about the 'long tail'. Let me give you an
concentrate on what’s important; the product and example: iTunes. iTunes sold initially about
logistics. 200,000 records; most record stores carry about
10,000 titles, the top-selling 10,000 titles. Itunes
SGB: Do you operate a just-in-time model or sold 200,000. They sold every single one.
advance orders? Obviously there was a tail of demand. It peaked
MT: Our supply model is only partly just in time. at one end, at the popular one – Beyonce or
We are taking a lot more pre orders from our whatever. And then it tailed down, but the more
dealers, we say 'okay, you can have just in time they added to the tail, the more sales they got.
and we have a trade site for these orders but obviously with limited choice'. Once they started having 800,000 or 1 million, they still sold every one of
Take for instance Spyder, one brand with 36,000 SKUs. There is no way we those tracks. There is a long tail of demand that isn't being supplied by
can carry the size and colours of that many SKUs. The dealer has to tell us retail.
what they need in backup, and we can supply that, but we need to have Where all the retail is concentrating is in the very short, niche, tight cluster
some idea. We made it very clear very early on that we need this feedback of products at the front, and there is a whole consumer demand with a long
14 SGB OUTDOOR MAY 2009
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48