EOG votes to include retail as members look back on mixed year
27/01/2014
Ninety senior executives from Europe’s leading outdoor companies attended the meeting, during which EOG president David Udberg stood down after serving his two-year term and Rolf Schmid (CEO of Mammut Sports Group) was elected to the role for 2014-2015.
Mr Schmid said: “Our sector is becoming more professional, global and high profile all the time. These are positive developments, but they bring significant challenges with them and we have adapted our approach to ensure that we can effectively support and represent our sector.
“Especially in the field of CSR and sustainability there are serious challenges ahead, and meanwhile we all have a vested interest in inspiring more people to follow an active outdoor lifestyle – together, we will be able to achieve more.”
Details on the criteria for retailers to be eligible to join the EOG will be published in the second half of 2014.
In terms of corporate social responsibility and sustainability, the association reported “good progress” its work on traceability standards for down, in its cooperation with the Fair Wear Foundation on employment conditions, and in dialogue with other multi-stakeholder NGOs. It said it is playing an important role in the development of the Higg Index, but faces challenges on certain chemical issues and is “working hard to find solutions”.
Of the remaining board members, five have been re-elected: Bernd Kullmann (Deuter, Germany), Eddy Codega (CAMP, Italy), Jean-Marc Pambet (Salomon, France), Martin Axelhed (Fjällräven, Sweden) and Rolf Schmid (Mammut Sports Group, Switzerland). The term of John Jansen (KEEN, Netherlands) has one year to run. In addition, Richard Leedham (Berghaus, UK) was elected to the board.
When asked to rate overall business performance in 2013, 40% stated that it was better than expected, just under 30% stated that it was as expected, and just over 30% stated that it was slightly worse than expected. When asked about prospects for 2014 compared to 2013, although it is very early in the year, there is a positive outlook, with almost 90% expecting business to improve (55% expect a slight improvement and 34% expect business to be much better); 10% expect business to be about the same as 2013.
The 2014 European Outdoor Summit will be held in Tegernsee near Munich on 15 and 16 October.
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