Kategorie: News
Huish Outdoors without distributor in Germany and Austria
As we have learned from Huish Outdoors dealers, the cooperation between Liquid Sports and Huish Outdoors will end at the end of February 2025. In the circular sent to all dealers, February 2024 is indicated – but we suspect that the year 2025 is meant due to the sending date: 9.12.24.
This is not good news for dealers and also for all customers of the Huish Outdoors collective brand and comes as quite a surprise. Nevertheless, this strategy (?) is not necessarily new for Huish Outdoors: in the past, there has been a 180-degree turnaround despite announcements to the contrary. Let's take a brief look back at the events of 2017 to 2019...
Review
In 2017, Huish Outdoors was a hot topic in the industry. At that time, the focus was on the purchase of the two diving equipment brands Oceanic and Hollis. The idea of building the leading diving equipment group, combining strong individual brands under one roof, was loudly marketed by the group. In 2019, the plan was then quietly abandoned and the entire sales division outsourced to an external partner.
The European headquarters (responsible for Europe and the Middle East) of Huish Outdoors in Bad Aibling was closed without replacement. This was disappointing news for all German employees of Huish Outdoors, especially in combination with the grandiose announcements after the takeover of Oceanic and Hollis.
Since this drastic change in corporate strategy in 2017, Liquid Sports, Kiel, has been the new distributor.
On 9 December, a circular was sent to the specialist trade announcing that Liquid Sports would be discontinuing the distribution of Huish Outdoors products (Atomic Aquatics, BARE, Zeagle, Oceanic, Hollis, Stahlsac) in Germany, Austria and Italy.
Frustrated dealers
We received the following opinion from dealers, which we pass on unfiltered: ‘Once again, retailers don't know what's going on with Oceanic, Hollis and now other Huish Group brands. Even after Oceanic Europe closed in 2019, it was a drama with spare parts and uncertain warranty processing. Is this happening again? The downward spiral at Huish is accelerating...‘
We have nothing to add to this comment at the moment, but we will follow further developments and report on them.
About Huish Outdoors
The Huish brand portfolio includes Atomic Aquatics, Bare, Hollis, Oceanic, Stahlsac, Suunto and Zeagle. Mark Huish, the owner, has integrated a total of seven diving brands into the group since 2011. Unlike other major brands such as Scubapro, Mares or AquaLung, which produce and distribute their product portfolios under the umbrella of the main brand, Huish Outdoors focuses on integrating and maintaining strong, well-known individual brands under the umbrella of Huish Outdoors. However, the concept was already called into question by the purchase of the full-range retailer Oceanic in 2015, as Huish Outdoors had brought a strong competitor into the company in the form of the previously acquired Atomic Aquatics brand.
Overall, it can be said that Huish's strategy has not been very successful in recent years, at least in Europe.
See also:
Huish Outdoors withdraws from Germany (2019 – German article)
Huish Outdoors acquires Oceanic and Hollis (2017 – German article)