White Sierra has been targeting specialty outdoor retail accounts with a series of service initiatives over the past few seasons and has seen over 40 new specialty dealers join its retail base nationwide. This is in addition to the over 70 that joined for the fall 2004 season. The additional dealers have boosted the company’s sales year to date from Fall ’03 to Fall ‘04 by 25%.

BOSS spoke with Andy Howe, vice president for business development for White Sierra, who said that the company is targeting “that sweet spot” of about 1,000 key retailers, but more importantly they want to find the right retailers in the right locations.

The company’s overall goal is to be “the ideal vendor for specialty outdoor retailers.” To meet this goal the company has launched several initiatives, ranging from POP signage support to ramping up their customer service division.

On the Customer service side, Peter Zavertnik will be the company’s new sales and customer service manager.

Zavertnik’s chief responsibility is, according to the company, “to champion the needs of the White Sierra dealer base and to promote attentive, proactive, and outgoing customer service to White Sierra dealers and sales representatives.” Zavertnik’s experience in outdoor specialty ranges from his beginnings with San Francisco’s Lombardi Sports to working up to an assistant manager post at Any Mountain in Berkeley. On the vendor side, Zavertnik worked as a sales coordinator for the Western region for The North Face as well as coordinating TNF’s national accounts customer service.

The company has also decided to split up its product line into five different categories, much like the silo approach many companies have been adopting. “These categories are certainly not sub-brands by any stretch of the imagination,” said Howe. “This just makes it easier for both consumers and retailers to navigate through the different products we offer.”

White Sierra recently completed several new product development projects, and instead of letting the inventory wait around until selling season, the company launched a direct mail program to retailers. The mailing consists of several oversized postcards that allow buyers to shop the product, but also double as POP signs. The company began the mailing a few weeks ago, and has seen a solid response from its dealers.

Finally, White Sierra is one of the first companies to take full advantage of Backpacker and Outside Magazine’s new regional issues. White Sierra is taking out 1/3 page ads highlighting its retailers in each region in addition to their normal full-page ad.

Howe said that these initiatives have been working well, with solid sell-through at retail, a very high return customer rate and a 35% increase in average order size.