Swiss precision

Unlike Haglofs, which wants to have a China unit in the near future, the Swiss firm Mammut, is looking ahead with confidence with its new Beijing-based China unit.

"We are planning to ship products to China from this summer, and start sales by autumn," says Rolf Schmid, chief executive of Mammut Sports Group SG.

Schmid says his company is keen on finding its own niche in China, rather than relying on the mass market. "We are not just a fancy brand. Most of our customers are those who really want to climb mountains, and hence put immense faith in the exceptional quality and standard of our products.

"We are largely a mountain brand, and we make products for real mountaineers. The Chinese market for this has just started, with growing interest among customers to try out our products," Schmid says. He says that though China is a promising market, the Swiss company is not in a hurry to expand rapidly. "We want to be the best, not the biggest," he says.

Being a global brand, Mammut has no plans intend to have a separate marketing strategy for China. The only exception that the company will make is to provide some products in a wider range of sizes. There will also be very few China-specific products.

The brand, 150 years old, had a turnover of $260 million (202 million euros) last year, but its fortunes have waned in its mainstay European market. "The outdoor product market has reached a certain level in Europe, and the growth is almost flat," Schmid says.

"Although we are a Swiss brand, we anticipate strong growth in Asia, especially from China in the next six or seven years."

Although a newcomer, Mammut is not unfazed by the challenges it is encountering in China.

"We are really surprised that many customers know about our brand, and directly come to us despite our recent entry. This is indeed positive and something that I have not seen in any other market," Schmid says.

Evidence of this was visible in the crowds that thronged the company's booth at the International Tradeshow for Sports Equipment and Fashion in Asia held last month in Beijing.

Different paths

Unlike these two well-known outdoor sports gear brands, Italian mountaineering products, maker Salewa, and Protest, a design-led boardwear brand from the Netherlands, have decided to take a different path.

Protest, in conjunction with its Chinese agency, BTS International Co Ltd, has opened six specialty stores in department stores and shopping malls since last June. Each store covers about 50 square meters, and the sales volume has been growing steadily at each unit on average of 20 percent each month. The company's main product-ski jackets-cost around 2,599 yuan a piece.

"This year, we are planning to open about 10 specialty stores, mainly in Beijing and Shanghai," says Bai Jingbo, marketing manager of BTS. Though the Dutch brand entered China in 2009, its first store debuted two years later.

"We have crossed the fledgling period and imbibed more knowledge about the market. Later, we will find more distributors to stock and sell our products across more locations," Bai says.

According to Bai, in Europe, the professional performance segment accounts for more than half of the total business, but in China, street-style and lifestyle products account for two-thirds of the total turnover.