Otter Distribution, the company that distributes the Otter shoes as well as the Geox brand introduced the Italian sportswear brand Fila on the domestic market this year.
"We currently have three clients on the distribution segment: Metro, Selgros and Killtec, but we are just starting to create the network. We are the sole importer of this brand (Fila i.e) and we created a separate department within the company especially for this process," says Oana Alexandru, the company's marketing manager.
Alexandru says the products, both clothes and footwear, will not be sold through the company's own stores, but only through the distribution chain.
The Italian brand Fila targets a market segment on which companies such as Adidas, Nike and Reebok are already present.
The company intends to open three more outlets over the second half of the year, two in Iasi and one in Bucharest. The investment in one outlet amounts to approximately 50,000 euros. Thus, Otter will reach to 18 outlets at the end of the year, after the company expanded its network by opening four stores last year through an investment worth some 60,000 euros for each outlet. The four stores were opened in Ploiesti, Sibiu, Constanta and Ramnicu Valcea.
"All the outlets we will open this year will be in line with the new concept of Otter store, which we will launch when we move our outlet from the old wing to the new wing of the Mall Vitan. We will also redecorate three other outlets in accordance with the new concept this year, which will entail an investment worth 100,000 euros," Oana Alexandru says. The new concept of store entails the change of the furniture and of the way the products are arranged as well as the completion of sales training courses organised for the stores' employees.
The company intends to expand its network in all the major Romanian cities, but it is also considering the opportunity of expansion outside the Romanian borders in countries like Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia.
Otter Distribution estimates the turnover derived last year amounts to 11.5 million euros, up by 32% against 2005.
"The increase in the number of the company's own stores and the strengthening of new brands on the domestic market contributed to the rise in turnover we saw last year," explained the company's representatives.
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