p14,15 Outdoor Big Bear:SGBGolf_NEW_template 01/06/2009 10:45 Page 15
Big Bear
tail going back to each colour and
size extending out. People are
getting tighter and tighter with
what they carry, their stock
exposure etc. They are
reducing what they carry in
store. The line ranges are
reduced, choices are
reduced, and that is
counter-productive.
I see good retail not
really changing, but
being simply good
retail and working
now as well as ever
before. Bad retail is as
bad as ever before,
and in fact the
shortfalls are being
highlighted. We know
that there are a lot of
dealers out there on
life support, who have been relying on suppliers' credit for so long they
don't even know what it means to be profitable. They don't have to be.
SGB: You recently took on Cloudveil as a brand – how does that fit into
the Big bear portfolio? Why did you go for them?
MT: We are looking for primary manufacturers; we are not looking for
badged marketing brands. We are not looking for a sunglasses range that
has Tobacco Sauce written on it made by somebody else and Tobacco
Sauce makes the margin. We are looking for primary manufacturers. The
people we deal with are the people who own the brand. We try to look for
strong management in the company. We want people to have a lot of say
in what happens. We want people to feel passionate about what they
produce. We don't really want to be working with conglomerates that are a
sub division of sub division of a sub division because that is such a difficult
animal to tame and understand.
Cloudveil was bought by Spyder, but we went over to Wyoming and had
a look at the product. It was innovative, it was
interesting, it was different, the colours were
a little bit different, but at the same time
the swatch was wide enough to
provide the Anglo-Saxon colours,
which is what we have, a kind of
east American kind of palette.
Also the product was distinctive
enough. It looks different, and
the people there were
passionate, so we went with it;
and are happy with the decision.
We see that there is good
growth potential with Cloudveil
over the next few years. The only
problem is, of course, is what a
hell of a time to start!
MAY 2009 SGBOUTDOOR 15
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