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| Amer Sports© |
“The objective for Precor over the last few years has clearly been to improve profitability,” says Rob Barker, President of Fitness at Amer Sports.
“We’ve managed to do that very well. In second half of 2013 we added more than four percentage points of gross margin in a very competitive industry.”
A similar trend has continued this year. In the first half, EBIT margin improved by almost three percentage points.
“I am pleased to say that we are sitting on a strong order book. We believe that the second half of the year is going to play out well for us,” says Barker. “We are confident that we can get to the group target profitability of 10 percent in the midterm.”
After that, Precor is targeting accelerated growth. The company is putting several building blocks in place to achieve this.
Win with operators
“We are focusing heavily on winning with operators,” says Barker.
He gives a telling example. Treadmills account for approximately one third of the global cardio fitness market. The just-launched new Precor Experience® Series treadmill has innovative features which were developed specifically for operators.
“Replacing the belt takes half the time it used to, and there are new diagnostic features inside and outside of the equipment. As a result, operators can reduce their service costs,” Barker explains.
“This has resonated greatly with operators. We recently had a nine million euro order in United States, and most of the assessment was done by the service technicians.”
“This thing is hot,” says Barker about the new treadmill. “We had to go to a second shift in the factory.”
Another area of focus is the service business. “Servicing fitness equipment is our fourth biggest product category, says Barker. “We’ve made a key choice to roll out more service programs that support operators and benefit our business.”
The third way to win with operators is to make use of Preva® networked fitness. “The general feeling in the industry is that most clubs are going to be connected at some point in near future,” says Barker.
“Preva and the benefits it delivers to operators is a very powerful thing already, in more than 1,700 sites with 26,500+ networked units globally.”
The network is growing rapidly. Over 100 million workouts have been logged and over a million workouts are added every week. Users consume six million media-minutes every day.
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| Amer Sports© |
”Traditionally Precor has a strong track record of winning with exercisers through product innovation, and we will keep up that heritage,” says Barker.
Precor has created new movements and whole new equipment categories for the market. Differentiation with unique motions continues.
“We continue to exploit the global Preva network, and win with exercisers in that captive time they are in the club,” says Barker. “In addition to that, Precor has huge opportunities in the larger Amer Sports Connected Digital Ecosystem with customers of other brands.”
The Digital Ecosystem consists of growing portfolio of Amer Sports’ connected products. They interact with mobile applications and service platforms – the brand websites, Preva network, and, for example, Suunto Movescount.com sports community. An integrated CRM database helps drive customer loyalty and increase sales throughout the different brands and their e-commerce shops.
Precor continues to play also in the premium home market. “We have a new line that we launched recently, and it has proven to be very successful.”
Win in go-to-market
Adding market coverage is another big opportunity for Precor, and an important building block for acceleration.
Barker states that in Australia, Precor sales through a reseller were about 2 million before transitioning to a direct office. Revenue has since grown to 14 million.
“This is a good example of how we are adding direct coverage,” he says. “In all our big geographic markets we have significant opportunities to increase the quantity of our coverage.”
Precor is focusing on operational excellence, as well. “We already run highly efficient factories, but are continuing to optimize our systems for gross margin gains.”
Barker is confident about the prospects of Precor. “We are putting in place the building blocks for accelerated growth,” he says. “And if we stay focused on making the correct choices every day, we can drive profitable growth.”
Read more:
24 Hour Fitness® chooses Precor cardio equipment for nationwide install
Watch video:
Precor Experience™ Series Commercial Treadmill Overview
Source Amer Sports©
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