Natural selection
ADD, the producer of Alpinus clothing, went bankrupt in 2004. The rights to the name were taken over by Bank Współpracy Europejskiej (BWE) and the brand disappeared from the market. It was a heavy blow for the company, as just four years earlier the value of Alpinus sales had reached zł.80 million.
Despite the setback, the firm's management did not give up. Using their former retail network they founded a new company - Mount - and launched a new line of clothing under the name Alpin's. The similarity of the brand caught BWE's attention, and they forced Mount to give up use of the name or anything resembling their former brand.
Brand new day
Now Mount has a new name for its products, and it seems the change has done them no harm. Indeed, their HIMountain brand is developing fast, now selling in over 80 outlets across the country as well as on the internet. But due to its bitter experience, the company is reluctant to share its sales figures or plans for the future.
"Mount Sp. z o.o. managers don't want to talk about the past any more. There has been so much misunderstanding and they are disgusted by the attitude of the media so they would rather not comment on anything but new products," said Aleksandra Opieła from a PR company representing HIMountain.
The new products are doing pretty well. Among the company's customers is the Tatra Mountains Rescue Service, for whom the company provides official equipment. However, it also has to face tough competition - that of its old brand purchased from BWE by Euromark Polska, a Polish company set up with British capital.
The British are coming
Over the last 12 years Euromark has become the leader in outdoor clothing in Poland. The company was established by Tim Roberts, who ran a similar business in his native England and got to know the Polish market in the early 1990s when he was looking for subcontractors to help him complete an order for the British army.
In 1997 Euromark launched its own outdoor brand - Campus. While Alpinus offered up-market products, Campus opted for the mid-priced market. Until 2004, the two brands co-existed on the market and even experienced similar difficulties in the late 1990s when banks refused them credit. But with its UK partner to help it through lean years, Euromark survived, while ADD lost its cherished brand to the bank.
Covering all angles
Two years after it disappeared, the Alpinus brand is back on the market and new owner Euromark is the multi-branded sector leader. After buying the brand from BWE, it took Euromark another eight months to obtain the Gore-tex license. In order to maintain the standards of the 'old' Alpinus they also employed one of the former designers of the brand.
"We see Campus as our value for money brand, it's probably the best known at that level and we will expand the market out," says Roberts. "Whereas Alpinus is a totally different ball game, which is why we liked to buy it. It's very complementary to our business. The two brands sell to different market segments. We've also introduced this year Stir Crazy, which is a fashion brand. We have now got three brands but the idea is that at the end of the day we would like to have seven or eight," he adds.
Some 25 percent of Euromark's production is sold abroad to Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Hungary and Slovakia. In Poland, the company's products are sold in 22 agency shops, 280 wholesale shops and four Planet Outdoor outlets. Last year Euromark posted a zł.5.8 million profit with a zł.46 million turnover.
"For the time being, because Alpinus is still very recent, 95 percent of our turnover is still Campus and even long-term Campus is our core brand. Undoubtedly, when it comes to market share Campus will always exceed Alpinus," Roberts said.
Going for gold
But the company is doing its best to revive the Alpinus brand, which should not be very difficult as it is still well recognized. Euromark was a sponsor of the Polish Olympic team in Torino and dressed the athletes in Alpinus products.
In December 2005 the company changed its status from a limited liability company (Sp. z o. o. ) to a joint-stock company (SA) - a first step towards an IPO. Tim Roberts is still rather vague about the exact date of a stock-exchange debut.
"We are looking at the moment at lots of opportunities and they are changing virtually every day. Obviously, getting more finance is necessary for our business, we are a rapidly growing company so we are looking at strategic opportunities that present themselves in Western and Eastern Europe and in different markets," Roberts explains.
He is confident about the future of Euromark and Alpinus, and not willing to repeat the mistakes of its former owners. "They were mainly outdoor people dealing with business and we are businesspeople dealing in outdoor. That's the way I look at it," Roberts concludes.
