Helly Hansen - predicts double digit growth
This week Fusion Associates speaks to Peter Castella, the Global Retail Director at Helly Hansen.
In an economic climate where many fashion and sports brands are shrinking, Helly Hansen is predicting expansion and growth rates for 2010 of up to 35 per cent within its retail division.
The Scandinavian sportswear firm currently has around 160 branded retail units worldwide and operates in some 50 different markets. With plans to open new stores in Europe and Asia as well as interest in Canada and the US next year, what has been the key behind Helly Hansens's success?
We spoke to Peter Castella, global retail director at Helly Hansen, who after heading up a period of aggressive expansion for Reebok in the Adidas Group as director of retail for the Asia-Pacific region, has taken over the reins at the company and explained the key ideas that are helping it to move forward. "Looking to 2010, from our order books we already know that we are going to grow," he explained.
"In the midst of a crisis, we have proven that our products are strong enough to brave the recession."
Helly Hansen's retail products benefit from the work wear and survival wear arm of the business and this is what Mr Castella believes gives the brand authenticity and the right to claim that it offers the technical products for the retail market that it has. Its survival wear is proven to save lives out on the seas.
This identity is what Helly Hansen is looking to promote throughout the whole of its marketing plan, beginning in its stores.
"There is definitely a re-branding exercise going on," said Mr Castella. "We want to strategically move the perception of how people view the brand. We have credible, technical products - so people will come and shop for those and find other products that they might want to wear."
Concept stores have been opened in Norway and in Manchester, UK reinforcing their heritage and the idea that Helly Hansen can provide the suitable wear for the desired activity, whether it be watersports, hiking or running. Graphics, internet access, sound showers and live broadcasts of world weather reports all aim to bring home this message.
However, another major part of the expansion is the introduction of a sportswear collection to make the company a 365-day relevant brand.
This will be where the company can drive business in the early spring and autumn, where perhaps Helly Hansen did not have the products before.
Niche markets such as snowboarding, youth, fashion and mountain biking have been abandoned in favour of a more focussed product line around skiing, watersports and outdoor and the sportswear collection aims to complement this.
This will also be of particular relevance in markets such as China where the technical and outdoor market is of limited volume and purchasing power is perhaps lower.
However, the products alone have not been Helly Hansen's only key to success. Since being taken over by new owners in 1996, new senior management has been introduced and the internal processes of the company have been cleaned up.
"The Helly Hansen engine has been made leaner - there will be a very clear thread in everything we do, from design, product buying, forecasting, marketing, selling and retail, it has all been through a big washing machine so to speak, to make sure that the processes are in their very best possible shape.
"And that alone is giving us the advantage now," explained Mr Castella.
He continued to say that there was still work to be done on the internal processes within the company, but this will come in the form of introducing the right products to the right markets at the right time.
Peter Castella joined Helly Hansen as Global Retail Director in July 2009 after an 18-month directorship at the Reebok Adidas Group. Previously he spent 5 years at Ecco (The Danish footwear retailer), and spent his last 16 months working as the retail director for the Asia Pacific region in Hong Kong.
Helly Hansen was founded in 1877 by Captain Helly Juel Hansen and began as a technical workwear brand creating durable waterproof clothing for the seamen. The company was also responsible for the invention of the fleece in the early 1960s.
