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ITALY SWISS PORTUGAL SPAIN UK FRANCE GERMANY
In Italy, the beginning of 2022 has seen Covid infections reach an all-time high, however nearly all business types have managed to stay open as hospitalisations have not yet reached a critical level. Christmas business was decent for most retailers, but there was less traffic on the streets and in city centres as people were more cautious about going out. Winter tourism is suffering. We’re seeing less tourists coming from abroad and hotels are being hit by last minute cancellations, mainly due to Austrian and German governments continually changing their regulations, making planning and confirming winter trips more difficult. Masks are still a must when entering stores and certain areas have reintroduced masks in outdoor settings when social distancing requirements can’t be met. The Green Pass is needed when going to a restaurant or when you want to buy a ski ticket. Boardsport stores are happy with the 2022 season so far as ski resorts have remained open, which wasn’t the case last year. In general, everything is slower than before Covid times, but people seem to be happy with less nowadays and are mostly just happy at the idea of not having another lockdown. At the moment, overall price increases are considered very critical to the market’s success. Gas, electricity, etc… are increasing heavily and people will have less buying power in 2022, which makes the outlook for the rest of the year very cloudy. As businesses are open, government help is slowing down but many are still facing cash flow problems as turnovers are not where they used to be. Due to price increases, Italy is now implementing a tax reduction for employees to give them more buying power, which will be crucial for our GDP in 2022. Boardsport retailers saw decent sales in hardware and outerwear this winter, even if a lot of sold goods were on sale; many retailers offered discounted prices 88
MARKET INSIGHT
on leftover stock from last year which customers welcomed and appreciated. Splitboards continue to do well, even though the range of products on offer is way bigger this year, the trend continues and is seeing good growth numbers. Skateboarding in general is still trending, but hardgoods sales have slowed down due to many stores and distributors having high stock levels. There’s now a lot more product on the shelves which needs to be sold and stores who carried less boards (before this increase in demand) are now either fully or over-stocked. As a result, some are able to drop their pricing to get rid of stock. Overall, retailers agree that spending money on freetime activities has become more important than ever and that people would rather spend more on being outdoors than on other stuff, as having fun outside has become the new luxury. As we face so many regulations in daily life, everyone’s been trying to stay outside as much as possible, to experience feeling free. Starting in February 2022, the government has also decided on a vaccine mandate for everyone over 50, anyone who refuses will face fines. Of course, this has incited many discussions as not everyone agrees, with some claiming it to be a defeat for democracy, however the government sees it as crucial if we want to end this Covid-19 crisis anytime soon. There has also been a very high vaccination rate across all other age groups. Let´s hope the spring and summer of 2022 will give us relief from the high infection rates experienced over this winter. So far this winter, the situation has been getting worse week after week and there’s fear of a lockdown being just around the corner. So that’s it, stay healthy and be outside as much as you can.
FRANZ JOSEF HOLLER
