bigwig interview
BIG WIG INTERVIEW
PETER BAUER - AMPLID
Amplid are one of the best success stories snowboarding has seen in the past five years. Fantastically made snowboards, forever pushing the boundaries of what’s possible and fronted by one of the sport’s most passionate and iconic figures; Peter Bauer slides into the Big Wig hotseat for this issue’s Big Wig. Interview by Source Editor HMT.
Peter, for those who don’t know (shame on them!) tell us about your background and what led you to starting Amplid. And don’t say snowboarding! I had been competing on the world cup circuit for almost 15 years, riding for Burton for the entire time. After my active career I got more and more involved in their board RnD, I learned a lot by seeing all the different factories and manufacturing methods. And at some point I simply thought it was time to start my own business. I saw the market being full of similar products, since it’s quite simple to go to a factory and get your own graphics onto cookie-cutter OEM-boards. For me this was a clear indication to make something original, going away from off-the-shelf materials, developing own technologies to make your riding day an even better one. This was the starting point of Amplid, and our DNA and purpose from day one. Tell us about the company structure at Amplid. Amplid has several locations: I am located in the Bavarian Alps, about 15 minutes from two resorts - and in Fiss (Austria), where our base is 300m from the gondola station. These are strategically two perfect places for our RnD processes. It allows me to get around 150 riding days per season. Plus the Hintertux glacier is very close as well, where we can ride and test all year around. Your question is about the “company” – but I feel being placed where you can ride 12 months per year is an important part of a snowboard company, as it keeps staff happy and psyched, and the RnD on a top notch level. Our warehouse and customer service is located in Munich. Our team consists of a bunch of competent, great and unique people. Gregor Common – a well know industry veteran - is our Head of Global Sales. Conrad Albert, the “other Amplid owner”, takes care of the finance stuff, business development and the overall strategic aspects of running a company. He lives right next door, so beside the fact that he is my daily partner in crime on the chairlift, he is a huge help for certain business disciplines which I am happy to hand over to somebody who’s got the black dan in it. I guess we will hear more from Conrad in the next few months, as he is one of the founders 44
‘‘Whatever hits the warehouse, pre-orders from retailers get served first. We are growing our online business well, but our B2B business grew a lot more during the past two seasons.’’ of Surf Town Munich, Europe’s biggest Surfpark to come in 2023. Hopefully surfing won’t distract us too much from our snow job … Michi Hanauer is our visual marketing guru, who is responsible for CI, board graphics, website, etc. All these guys are excellent riders by the way, and super fun to go ride and hang out with. Then we’ve got Sabine Thieme, Jenny Balling and Annette Lakos, who are the actual masters of operations behind the curtain, as they do all the ERP work, from accounting to customer service. They are invaluable as they really keep everything together in the daily grind. And finally we have Nina Albert, Conrad’s wife, who has a heavy finance background, is super savvy in financial structuring and accounting and comes in from time to time to analyse and help optimizing our financial performance. Amplid also owns and operates a merino business, called Pally’Hi (www. pallyhi.com), where we have a few additional people in the team. Most of the staff mentioned before are also involved with Pally’Hi, which is managed by Johannes Ritter. How are you making your business more sustainable? There are a couple of buttons we are pushing: Sustainably Harvested Wood Wood cores are one of the most important materials in our snowboards. This is why we purchase all our snowboard cores from FSC–certified suppliers. These cores are made from responsibly harvested wood that meets the standards of the Forest Stewardship Council™ (FSC). FSC wood is verified to
