Mountain Ventures
7 Green Drive
Hale's Location, NH 03860
June 18, 2009
Dear Henry,
Traveling back from the recent Mammut Summer Sales Meeting I was reflecting on the presentations I had just seen - in particular the Apparel. And I was struck by how far
the company has come with the arrangement of the collections around outfits and color themes - an area where I believe you were instrumental in bringing about a change
of thinking in our organization some years ago when we worked together. In thinking back to that period it's one of the most important things I believe your consultancy
brought to the company - not only with my team in the US - but as well with product management in Switzerland. We've made a great deal of progress in defining our
apparel assortments - moving away from an "individual item" approach - to entire collections in "layered" outfits, tied together with compatible color themes, while
maintaining our technical focus. This has carried over into our whole approach to the market, from the way the booth is merchandised at OR to the way the Reps
approach the presentations at the show and in the stores. Our Sales Reps are getting increasingly comfortable and more proficient at showing the collection not
only for it's technical merits, but as well by the way it merchandises with the color themes. Thank you again for getting the ball rolling for us in this area some years back.
I also wanted to mention that very first project we delivered to Mr. Lanz and Mr. Schimd - your "State of the Business" address. As you so politically pointed out -
the chances for success were good, but not at the speed they had initially imagined. We have made steady progress year after year and after basically starting
from zero in 2001 we should reach $11 million for the Mammut brand this year - if the economy doesn't worsen further. Considering 9/11, the recent economic
crisis and a host of internal factors around style, fit and delivery on the apparel side to differences in marketing approaches between the mature markets and
developing markets I think everyone is getting pretty comfortable with our growth trajectory. This has provided me some "space" with management in Switzerland
to grow in a way that has allowed us to build sustainable relationships with our customers - not pushing them into products that won't prove profitable for them.
Of course the big boss always wants the growth to come faster!
Thanks for all your help, mentoring and hard work during that period. I hope we will get to work together again and more importantly enjoy some time in the mountains in the near future.
Regards,
Bill Supple
President and CEO
Mammut Sports Group, Inc