Whitby & Co
services when they’re communicating with them. What we have done is have a very traditional model where we communicate by a catalogue, printed newsletters and through our sales team, but with the best will in the world they can't be with a retailer more than probably, at best, once a month. Some
customers might receive ten visits a year, some
only one or two, depending on the size of account, and we want to step up the level of communication we have with them, without spiralling our costs. That's why we will be investing in IT and we are taking some more people on board internally within the sales office and the marketing team.
SGB: The Outdoor Trade Show is coming up, what do you have planned for that? GW: We are not just a two-brand company, so we’ll be sharing success stories across our brands and saying to the independents things like, "Do you know that the multiples have taken this brand on and it's going places for them, do you want to get into this as well?" Actually, sometimes our biggest challenge is communicating the benefits of the variety of products and brands that we carry in the limited time we have within the show environment – it’s certain to be busy! One event which we are going to build momentum for is our 50th anniversary next year; we were founded 1961 and we’re very proud of the fact that we’re not only still in business but have continued to grow throughout this time.
A new Brand such as Heat Factory will create its own interest – our research indicates that there are a lot of customers out there who will be interested in taking it. Also, there will inevitably be interest in the development of Leatherman’s new products which we've seen coming out
in the last few months. They've crucially bought out a product, the Style, that retails below £19.95 for the first time.
It’s a very significant new phase for Leatherman as they are being more aggressive with their retail prices where previously they were quite happy to own the market in the middle- and high-end price points and perhaps hadn't had an awareness that they were giving some ground in the lower price points.
We’ll also have new product from Princeton Tec at the show, and we want to start mirroring their US success here in the UK. Customers who carry Princeton do well with it but we need to broaden that base by getting the message over that they are the number one in terms of high performance head torches.
Another development people will see at OTS is a re-launch of LED flashlights by Inova. Inova flashlights will be coming through with uprated performance and significantly lowered pricing, thanks to an overhaul of their manufacturing processes after their takeover by Nite-Ize. LED's are constantly improving in terms of their output, but lowering the costs to the point that they have – some by 50% in terms of the retail price – is a pretty big event for us. The products that are ongoing will also see power upgrades paired with price cuts.
SEPTEMBER 2010 SGB OUTDOOR 19
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