Bridgedale, the U.K. specialty brand of functional socks, wants to intensify its presence on the European continent: It has hired Christian Benedikt as business development manager for Europe. In this newly created position, the 33-year-old will be working on strengthening Bridgedale's market position in Germany, Austria and Italy. Therefore, Benedikt will be located at the office outside Munich of Invia, the distributor in charge of those countries. Additionally, he will coordinate the work of all other distributors across Europe. In a second step, Benedikt will be involved in the market penetration of countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Over the past six years, Benedikt worked for K2 Sports Europe, where he was in charge of Atlas and Tubbs, the snowshoe brands of Jarden Corporation, as well as the cross-country skis of Madshus.

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