ISSUE 18
E-NEWS
HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS MONTH’S ISSUE:
GLOBAL ISTANBUL REVIEW NEW UK SHOWROOM MARTIN DREYER JOINS HI-TEC GLOBAL RECYCLING PR UPDATES
ALEXANDRE AND SONIA POUSSIN
HI-TEC Global Review Istanbul, Turkey 20th – 23rd Written by Helen Durant, Global PR & Advertising Manager
What an absolutely incredible week! One that I will never, ever forget! HI-TEC Global offers wonderful opportunities to share information and spend some time understanding our businesses and markets. This experience certainly grew my own, personal knowledge of the unique world of HI-TEC. With over 130 delegates from over 50 countries the months of teamwork that included detailed planning, preparation and organisation certainly paid off!
During the extremely busy 3 days we covered every aspect of HI-TEC SS10 product innovation, marketing, sourcing and merchandising. The launch of the brand new and extremely exciting V-Lite Infinity collection was received superbly. The event theme of “Infinite Possibilities” was a strong platform and foundation that reverberated throughout the event in the Global DVD, delegate books and presentations. The ion mask technology continues to globally catapult HI-TEC faster, louder and brighter than many of our competitors and long may this continue. One of the strengths of the ion mask concept is that it has been told 100% consistently throughout the world. The rewards reaped from this great team effort are two-fold, from fantastic media attention, award winning product to new account openings. A phenomenal opportunity for our brand that no one can fail to miss! In difficult worldwide economic conditions HI-TEC continues to invest in people, research, development and marketing. We endeavor to provide both our trade customers and end consumers with compelling reasons to buy our brand over and above our competitors.
Thanks to all our excellent partners and colleagues from around all the corners of the world for joining us and ensuring the week was so enjoyable, entertaining and productive – it is a sheer delight and pleasure to work with you and for you. Istanbul certainly offered delegates an extremely warm welcome (even though the majority of the week we experienced torrential rain and gale-force winds). Crammed full of incredible culture and history, Istanbul proved extremely hospitable. Our hosts, Ender Spor were truly marvelous and ensured all our guests were comfortable throughout the week. Arriving at Istanbul airport to see Gregory’s smiling face was a great start to the week! HI-TEC displayed unmissable ion mask advertising billboards located on the main roads from the airport. The iconic Polat Renaissance Hotel, located just outside the city centre, was possible one of the best hotels I have ever had the pleasure of staying and working in. An exceptional conference venue, the Polat also offered our guests beautiful facilities (not that we had the opportunity to experience any of them!)
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HI-TEC also celebrated its 35th Birthday in spectacular fashion during the Gala Dinner held on the night of the 21st. All our guests were provided with “Thanks Frank!” masks and the surprise was truly on our Chairman who was presented with many, many birthday gifts including a commemorative pair of HI-TEC Squash, 35th Birthday Trophy and more importantly a collective 127,000 pair order from HI-TEC International!
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Congratulations also go to the following winners of the HI-TEC International Awards 2009 – Best Marketing Communications Initiative WB Company / Proconcept, THE BIG CITY ATTACK Best Global Distributor Martes Sport, Poland Most Improved Country South Africa Best Sales Effort Tec Technologia en Calzado, Costa Rica The Frank van Wezel Special Recognition Award Steve Rogers
Huge thanks to Alexandre and Sonia Poussin for providing the audience with some incredible, inspirational stories about their lives and the awesome Africa Trek. Their dedication and passion for the brand certainly matches ours and it is a pleasure to work with such a wonderful couple!
I have many, many great memories from the launch and another unforgettable highlight was Turkish evening held on Wednesday. A true taste of Turkish belly dancing, traditional drummers and wonderful music certainly got everyone’s pulses racing and feet dancing!
Once again the saying “work hard, play even harder” rings true when I think back to HI-TEC’s Global Istanbul. The personal rewards of being part of such an event are immense and working with such a team of great people is one of the unique, key things that make HI-TEC a great, great company! Congratulations to the Global HI-TEC team on their unrivalled hard work, dedication, passion and drive!
THAILAND SIGNAGE
ALL WEATHER CAMPING
Thought you would enjoy seeing the attached on Sathorn Road in Bangkok outside Suchart's office. Sathorn Road, as you know, is Bangkok’s main commercial and banking street with an estimated 10,000 people passing the sign a day. It would be a lot more but given it takes 5 minutes to travel the 50 meters in front of Thai CC Office Tower Block then they all have plenty of time to see our sign. The sign is lit at night.
For those of you who have visited HI-TEC HQ you would have driven along the A127 to get to the offices. Congratulations to Joe Holland who positioned a superb and extremely visual banner along this main road in conjunction with a great account All Weather Camping!
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FRANK VAN WEZEL
SOUTH AFRICA PRAISE Mickey Mallet – CEO HI-TEC South Africa Thank-you once again for the award received at the 35th Birthday awards evening.
In the picture from left to right: Prof. dr. Bert de Groot, rector magnificus and dean of Nyenrode Business Universiteit, Frank van Wezel, CEO Hi-Tec Sports Plc., Prof. dr. C.K. Prahalad, one of the Worlds' leading thinkers on strategy and innovation, Drs. Shayne Vervoort Msc, Marketing Manager Hi-Tec South-Africa, Martin van der Pal, President VCV Alumni Association Nyenrode.
I have congratulated all our staff on this achievement and I have attached a few pictures from the staff meeting. At our staff meeting I updated everybody on all positive things that are happening in the group.
RUSSIAN LAUNCH Thanks to Dmitry for sending some great images from the Russian AW09 Launch. Good to see ion mask certainly being shouted from the rooftops! Great job! I am reliably informed that "Obuv vesgda suchaja" means “all time dry footwear”.
USA SQUASH
For those of you who don’t get USA University Sports coverage please check out the latest images from University sports, and a great article on the Trinity College Squash Team and the GREAT action photo shot of our squash shoe in action during the NCAA Finals.
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NEW UK SHOWROOM HI-TEC, leading Global Outdoor and Sports Company, recently announced an impressive 12.5% increase in its 2008 UK Outdoor footwear sales. The brands continued growth and investment in the Outdoor market maintains positive momentum for 2009 with their forward sales orders increased by over 65% compared to the same period in 2008. In order to service the growing demands of new and existing customers based in the North of Britain and to further reinforce the brands dedication and continued investment in the Outdoor market, HI-TEC has opened a brand new showroom in Kendal in the Lake District. On the 31st March the HI-TEC Kendal Showroom was opened by Frank van Wezel, the companies Founder and Chairman. Several key outdoor retailers joined the HI-TEC team to celebrate the unveiling of the showroom that displays the latest key ranges in the Outdoor collection.
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HI-TEC plans to evolve the ion mask technology even further this autumn 09 with the introduction of a hybrid winter lifestyle collection supported by a specific women’s lifestyle campaign. The V-Lite Snowflake Chukka 200i uniquely combines the ground breaking benefits of “stay clean” ion mask technology with high performance winter technologies and the latest stylish designs. Martin Binnendijk HI-TEC CEO comments “These are truly exciting times at HI-TEC with further investment growth and development of the HI-TEC Outdoor collection and the continued success of the ion mask technology.”
ENJOY OUR SHOWROOM
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THE LAKE DISTRICT ROAD TRIP
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Trespass Visit
Temple Sports Visit
Trespass Store
Temple Sports Store
Craghill Boot Store
Gaynor Sports Store
Craghill Boot Store
FVW & Linda & Customer buyFasthikes in Gaynors
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THE LAKE DISTRICT ROAD TRIP
Jacksons of Bowness Night Out
A Great Night Out
Wm Smith (Martin Harris & bosses)
Customers Having Fun
Malcom Craghill, Fiona Burns
Jacksons of Bowness
Craghill Boot Store
Edge of the World
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GLOBAL RECYCLING Written by Dayna Panales PR Manager USA
I’m so excited that we can share this initiative throughout the world of Hi-Tec. In case you or someone else in other offices around the world wish to us these same materials, I’ve attached them for your use and hand out if someone expresses interest. Here is a more in depth write up of what the US offices have been doing to green the office the past couple years; Hi-Tec USA has already taken some great steps to “Fade Our Corporate Footprint”. Since August of 2008, we have installed motion sensor lighting in low traffic areas of the warehouse and offices cutting back 33% of our energy bill from last year at this time. All fluorescent lighting and all office batteries from small AAA size to large industrial size batteries are sent in for recycling. Any cardboard is bundled and sent in for recycling and there are designated can, plastic and recycling bins throughout the offices. For many years now we have invested in refurbished IT equipment lowering both our cost investment as well as power usage. We also do not utilize third copies of invoices in an effort to save paper and Canada has gone totally digital with e-invoicing only.
MARTIN DREYER JOINS THE HI-TEC SA TEAM
HI-TEC is 100% confident there is no better way to put their brand new ion mask HPi footwear to the test than by supplying Martin Dreyer, one of South Africa’s most respected multi-sport athletes and adventure racers, with the latest in hydrophobic HPi trail running footwear – V-Lite Trail Eruption HPi. HI-TEC have signed an exclusive sponsorship deal with Martin Dreyer whose accolade of achievements include Land Rover G4 World Champion, 7 times Dusi Canoe Marathon Champion and top international adventure racer competing in the Raid Finals & Adventure Racing World Championships, to name a few. HI-TEC fully support Martin’s latest project the “Change a Life” program and has supplied the V-Lite Trail Eruption HPi to him and his team who compete in the Dusi Canoe marathon. This is no ordinary challenge. Martin hand picked his team from rural villages in Natal where they all were essentially cattle herders and never had any experience in a boat or canoe. Martin Dreyer says “HI-TEC featuring ion mask hydrophobic HPi footwear will be an essential part of the “Change a Life” Academy kit and we are truly grateful. It is of utmost importance that my footwear can deliver the best performance whatever the conditions. I am truly excited about the opportunities and benefits that HI-TEC ion mask technology will offer me. With the help from our HI-TEC footwear we can start to change lives…”
In addition to these steps to “Fade Our Corporate Footprint” and in honor of Earth Day we took a few more steps by adding recycle paper boxes to each desk and work area. Most US staff already recycles used paper in our “Shred It” containers and a company comes in to recycle the used paper versus throwing it away and ends up in a land fill. We are encouraging that when possible, let’s use the UNUSED side of the paper too before it gets into the “Shred It” bin. By utilizing the “Shred It” program, In 2007 Hi-Tec USA saved 70 trees and in 2008 we saved 84 trees. Our goal in 2009 is to both save on paper cost by utilizing the UNUSED side of the paper for reports, faxes, email, etc. and we hope to save 100 trees through the “Shred It” program. Our next 2009 initiative to “Fade Our Corporate Footprint” is to cut back on Styrofoam cups provided for coffee, tea and cocoa. We are switching to ceramic and encouraging staff to bring their favorite cup from home. We welcome your thoughts and ideas in our effort to “Fade Our Corporate Footprint” for many years to come.
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RYA DINGHY SHOW
HI-TEC CHINA SHOP
HI-TEC certainly stood out from the crowds as they set up a sales stand at the recent RYA VOLVO DINGHY SHOW 2009.
The show provides dinghy sailors of all ages and abilities with the latest boats, kit, along with coaching sessions and advice from experts, including Olympic class sailors, all under one roof. Volvo has been involved with the show since 2000 through their support of the RYA's youth training programmes.
SELF SERVE UNITS HI-TEC has designed another fantastic way of grabbing the consumer’s attention whilst in store…introduction the Self Service Unit! Not only can this amazing structure hold 64 pairs of HI-TEC’s the stunning design ensures customers are seated comfortably when trying on our instantly comfortable, lightweight footwear! For more information please contact the Marketing department.
This was taken outside a Hi-Tec China shop in Jin Jiang, Fujian Province, China where a large number of our shoe factories are based. With Chris, Global Sourcing Director (who is currently based in China) are Joel Pineda, Hi-Tec’s Commercialisation Manager and Jean-Paul Castagna, HTSCG’s Regional Manager for Fujian Province both you are based in Jin Jiang. Inside the Hi-Tec China shop Chris found a photo on the wall of Hi-Tec’s Head Office in Southend, that was taken by Kenny Chiang of Hi-Tec China and felt a little bit homesick as he could see his old office window! The range of Hi-Tec lifestyle apparel and shoes in the shop was impressive and presents a fantastic brand image across the China retail market.
CONSUMER TESTIMONIAL Thanks to Dayna, HI-TEC PR USA for sending through the latest consumer testimonial
“I LOVE my boots. They are the most comfortable boot I've ever owned. So lightweight and the waterproof technology is insane. I went up to my friends cabin a couple weekends back and I lived in those boots. My feet were dry and warm the whole trip. Even walking through fresh powder and sinking down in the snow the boots stayed dry. I can't wait to try them backpacking this summer!! Thanks again so much! Michelle E., California, USA
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SA ADVENTURE RACES
MODA SHOW UK
I have attached some pictures taken at the Grabouw Spur/Hi-Tec adventure race. Jan Van Rooyen, our Cape Town rep put up all banners and arch for this race 2 weeks ago. This is incredible value for HI-TEC and we got good exposure for our new Trail shoes and Brand! Spur put up the big bucks and we push the limits of what they will allow us to do in terms of branding!
Moda UK is a trade show that incorporates all elements of lifestyle fashion. The show consists of men’s and ladies clothing, accessories and footwear. The footwear was added to Moda two years ago and now is the last real footwear trade event in the UK. The show is aimed at traditional footwear retailers and attendees range from national accounts to independent stores. The show has gained momentum in recent years and now consists of a varied and diverse range of exhibitors.
We have another race in Pretoria which will be attend by about 6-8 staff. We will send pictures after this event. Martin Dreyer will also be competing and he has been appointed as the Spur ambassador for this series, which means that they will fly him to all events and pay him, and we will get some added exposure!!
The exhibition is bi-annual and runs in February and August. Hi-Tec Sports has exhibited in recent years but 2009 saw us use a bespoke stand for the first time. Our aim in exhibiting at this show was to present to the shoe trade the growing importance of the Outdoor category in today’s footwear market.
WELCOME KEITH DICKER
Traditionally, our stand presentation has predominately been sports led but with some of the exciting stories surrounding Outdoor and the growth of lifestyle change we devoted 60% of the stand space to Outdoor. We had an exceptional 3 days where we had 90 visits to the stand over the duration. We were able to agree sales orders at the show with a number of retailers. Sales order values at the show were £60,000 and we had new account enquires of 30 potential retailers from various backgrounds. We were also able to make contact with some old customers and have gained repeat appointments with some potential new national accounts.
HIGH & MIGHTY I wanted to inform you about a brand new UK account called High & Mighty. I opened this account last month and they have just taken delivery of their first drop of Auckland WP up to size 16 for SS09.
A warm HI-TEC welcome to Keith Dicker as our brand new European Golf Manager. Keith brings with him a wealth of experience from various other well known golfing brands he has worked for including Hippo Golf, Petron and Bite shoes. Keith comments, “I am extremely excited at the prospect of working for Hi-Tec, with its brand strength, global distribution and fantastic heritage. I feel that with their product range and my experience together we can bring even more success to this great company.”
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Although we will be dealing with a third party company who look after High & Mighty’s footwear, the Auckland will be placed in the top 10 stores throughout the UK. Depending upon the sell-through we will get this to go ALL STORES with additional SKU’s. There are 37 stores throughout the UK, Europe and Middle East. They specialize in supplying large sizes to the big and tall! Web info for your reference: www.highandmighty.co.uk/?gclid=CJq6y4ul-pgCFUM-3godJnaynA Joe Holland Court Category Manager UK
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EASTER WISHES
TOG 24 MAILER
Huge thanks from everyone in the HI-TEC UK offices for their Easter surprise from the van Wezels! Nothing better than a big smile and some chocolate to brighten anyone’s day!
Please see attached the HTML artwork created by leading UK Outdoor retailer TOG24. They distributed this creative featuring the wonderful HI-TEC featuring ion mask to 60,000 of their eager Outdoor customers!
DEAR FRANK Good Morning Frank, Yesterday (Saturday) and probably every time as I am putting on my replacement V-Lite Rapidhikes I will be shaking my head and saying Thank You Jan------for providing me with the ‘Ultimate Service’. I purchased my original V-Lite Rapidhikes in January at Cape Union Mart - Constantia and was so impressed with them I wanted to purchase another pair—after talking to Cape Union on Fri Mar 6th I decided to call your Capetown office direct as they had no inventory of this model left. My call was greeted by a very pleasant lady stating Jan van Rooyen was not available. However she not only gave me his e mail I requested but asked me for my phone number and advised me she would follow up with Jan on Monday. On which I not only received an e mail reply but a phone call. Jan advised me he would send me a replacement pair from Jo’burg and when I advised him we were flying out tomorrow to Kruger he stated –‘You will have them by then”. Friday afternoon late in the heavy traffic Jan arrived at my door in St. James with my replacement boots! Only after finding out from Jan that he lived in Paarl—(the other direction from here) I realized Jan had obviously sacrificed “Family Time’ for me. Incredible, unforgettable service! When we return from Canada in October (we have spent 5 months every year for the past 20 here) Anna will be buying her new hiking boots with the first priority----They must be HI-TEC! Best Regards
DEAR FRANK I recently returned from a holiday in Austria, where it snowed in varying degrees for most of the week. I took a pair of St Moritz boots and when I was not cross country skiing they performed brilliantly. Kept my feet beautifully warm and dry, even when I stood in really deep snow and they gripped perfectly on both the ice and snow. Perfect winter product that looks the part! Kind regards Liz Collins (UK)
ENJOY OUR SHOES
Bob Garner (US)
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HUNGARY SQUASH STARS Thanks to Karel HI-TEC Mid Europe for sending through images of their latest sponsored players from Hungary. Our customer Shopsport is supporting Hungarian's no. 5 squash player and other 30 students.
SOUTH AFRICA NATIONAL PARKS Written by Shayne Vervoort – Marketing Manager SA
HI-TEC SA has a very special relationship with the national parks board. We include them in all our advertising of trail boots and sponsor boots to their guides. Our objective is to leverage as much value from the deal as possible. One of the benefits is they allow us to join the outdoor shows where they promote their trails for the public. Because of the relationship Hi-Tec is allowed to share their stand and promote the fact that we are SANParks (South Africa National Parks) preferred and trusted trail boots. It is a strong relationship and one we have worked hard on for many years I have attached some photos of what we did in South Africa at the last outdoor show.
CAMPING LIFE The V-Lite Altitude Ultra WPi earns a full page review in the Mar/Apr 2009 issue of Camping Life. “No hot spots or excessive forefoot or heel movement were experienced. Break in was nearly instant...,” said editor and gear tester, Stuart Bourdon, “Standing in a few inches of water several times during a days’ hike was no trouble either.”
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HI-TEC AROUND THE GLOBE Huge thanks to Barney Gollings for sending me his latest images and information from his HI-TEC road trip. Certainly proves what a truly global brand HI-TEC is!!
EQUADOR • Marathon Sports shops operate in Ecuador, Peru and Colombia . • The store itself is superb with wonderful quality product and in store merchandising with all the key brands. Marathon Sports are the national football team main sponsors • Marathon Sports, as a Group have created new specific Outdoor stores under the “Explorer” banner. These are specialist stores stocking only outdoor brands, of which Hi-Tec is the biggest! • They have the license for Hi-Tec on clothing and accessories, though they buy into our clothing range as well. See images of clothing, tents, sleeping bags… • Great country for Outdoors with Quito (the capital city) at 3000m. The aim is to have Hi-Tec concept areas in the Marathon Sports shops to increase presence/ exposure.
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HI-TEC AROUND THE GLOBE COSTA RICA • Griselle is the owner/ founder of our Costa Rica distribution • ‘Penny Lane Sport’ is the name of Griselle’s stores • ion-mask sell in was hugely successful with 100% sell through of initial purchase. • The ion-mask TV advert proved to be a huge success. Weather in Costa Rica is 6 months rain, six months dry – ideal ion-mask territory.
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HI-TEC AROUND THE GLOBE PERU • Nisim Schottland runs our Distributor operation in Peru and Alan Kaufman is the Hi-Tec Brand Manager. • Saga Falabella and Ripley are huge department stores present across Peru and our biggest retail frontage. Falabella in particular are incredible quality stores. • Coliseum is the name of Nisim’s own stores. • Billboard – this is where THE huge Hi-Tec billboard is located, in Lima at the airport (no photo opportunity but believe me its HUGE!) • ion-mask – HUGE campaign by Falabella on every major window at every department store. These are all consistent with the branding provided by us but they play more on the ‘Stay Clean’ story as it rarely rains in Peru.
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EXTREMA
AVENTURA
OUTDOOR
BODY & MIND
ARGENTINA
BENELUX
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ARGENTINA
BENELUX
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EXPLORE
MH LIFESTYLE
OUTDOOR
MB
CANADA
ITALY
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ITALY
ITALY
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LEKIP SPORT
DAILY EXPORTER
ADVERTORIAL
NEWS TRADER
MAURITIUS
NEW ZEALAND
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NEW ZEALAND
SOUTH AFRICA
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TURISMO RURAL
AUTO VERDE 4X4
AIRE LIBRA
MOTO VIVA
SPAIN
SPAIN
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SPAIN
SPAIN
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ROYAL MAIL CONTRACT
TGO
MENS FITNESS
DRAPERS
UK
UK
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UK
UK
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BACKPACKER
WOMENS HEALTH
FOOTWEAR NEWS
DESNIVAL
USA
USA
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USA
SPAIN
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