At the recent Bank of America Annual Investors Conference, Columbia
president and CEO, Tim Boyle gave a brief overview of the company and
its growth initiatives. On the product side, Columbia is looking at two
major branding opportunities to boost apparel and footwear sales.
For apparel, COLM is bundling all of its sun protection apparel into
one moniker, dubbed Omni Shade. While the company has been making sun
protection apparel for several years, this will give the category
better definition and is designed to draw more consumer attention to
the products. COLM also received an endorsement from the International
Skin Cancer Society for this program.
In Footwear, the company is introducing a new branded technology dubbed
Tech-Lite, which is designed to help boost its brand presence on the
footwear wall. The company also pointed to Montrail as a growth vehicle
in the category. Boyle said that he sees “
a large opportunity for us
to bring [Montrail] down to a more normal consumer.”
The company is expanding its Columbia distribution “selectively” into
more department stores and specialty footwear retailers. Footwear and
sportswear are currently the most rapidly growing categories.
International sales, which are currently about 40% of the companys
revenues, continue to be an opportunity as well. This segment is
primarily led by European countries, where COLM is strong in France and
Spain. Being a cold weather brand, Columbia feels that it should have
greater market penetration in Austria, Germany and Scandinavia.
