Under Armour, more changes ahead: takes Spanish market management to France

More changes ahead at Under Armour. The company has decided to erase the Spanish general management and transfer it to France. The Spanish team, led by Jens Ullbrich, will be maintained, but it will only have control over the multibrand channel and operations in El Corte Inglés department stores, according to Palco23.

The change in the Spanish subsidiary is produced during Under Armour’s full-on transformation on a global scale. The group is getting heavily involved with business outside the United States to compete with the two giants of the sector, Nike and Adidas. Because of that, the company has reorganized its international divisions during the last months.

After the change, Under Armour’s offices in Sant Just Desvern (Barcelona), will continue managing the wholesale business, whereas strategic decisions (including the entrance in new multibrand chains) will be taken from France. Outlet stores, on the other hand, will be driven as until today from Amsterdam.

Under Armour’s Spanish subsidiary will continue to manage the multibrand channel, but Paris will assume strategic operations

Nowadays, Under Armour is present in 200 multibrand stores in the Spanish market, in chains such as Base Detall Sport or Intersport. The corporation is also seen in El Corte Inglés’ corners and, in the short-term, it does not contemplate launching a directly-operated store.

Under Armour took control of its business in the Spanish market two years ago, after terminating the distribution contract with local partner Alnisa Sport. Now, the goal is to get back the volume of business it reached prior to its direct entrance in Spain, when its distributor obtained a revenue of almost 25 million euros back in 2015. For the time being, the workforce has been growing through the acquisition of several junior executives who have joined the sales team located around the Catalan capital.

One of the key points to reach this target is gaining label notoriety inside the country. “Our biggest challenge in Europe, and overall in Spain, is the recognition of the brand, to be known”, stated the marketing director of the group in south Europe Fabian Sautier recently.

Under Armour has recently made changes in its European leadership with the incorporation of Massimo Baratto

The change in the Spanish subsidiary comes after the reorganization of the leadership for the whole of Europe, which during the summer laid on Massimo Baratto, until then general manager of Oberalp Group, Under Armour’s Italian distributor last year. They also signed Kelley McCormick as corporative communication director for Europe, a position which did not exist in the past.

The United States enterprise finished the first nine months of the year with a revenue of 3.8 billion dollars (3.33 million euros), a 5.1% more than during the same period last year. However, losses stood at 50.5 million dollars (44.3 million euros), whereas last year the company obtained profits.