Globetrotter Ausrüstung, the large Hamburg-based outdoor retailer, has appointed five managers to create a wider circle of executives to bring the big German outdoor retail chain and mail-order house to the next level. Besides Thomas Lipke and Andreas Bartmann, managing partners, and Philip von Melle and Angela Rux, managing directors, this wider group of managers includes three executives who have joined Globetrotter from outside. Two more have been with the retailer for a long time.
Hans-Joachim Heuer is now in charge of logistics. The 54-year-old is a seasoned man in this business as he has spent a great deal of his career at the Otto Group in various positions and at different subsidiaries, most recently at Witt, one of Otto's mail-order operations.
Rene Prignitz has been appointed director of controlling, a newly-created position within the company. His job will be to implement a new structure at Globetrotter for controlling and financial planning. The 39-year-old previously worked at Gebr. Heinemann, a specialty retailer in the sector of duty-free shops for airlines, ships, airports and so on.
Christian Ziehn's field of knowledge is IT technology and he will run the e-commerce division at Globetrotter. Previously, he served B.O.C., a German bicycle retailer.
Within the group, Anny Cardinahl, the long-time buyer of Globetrotter, has been promoted as executive responsible for product category management. The 43-year-old joined the company in 1991 and most recently managed purchasing and range building . Her job will be to oversee the strategic assortment and the acquisition of new customer groups.
Ulrich Gumz, manager for the last 13 years of Globetrotter's store in Hamburg, is now in charge of the entire brick-and-mortar business of the chain. The 53-year-old will act also as an interface between online and offline retailing.
Bartmann told this publication that it was time to adapt the management structure to the needs of a company that has been growing strongly over the past years. He pointed out that the challenges of a larger retailer have been growing in size and complexity. Therefore, it was inevitable to add a couple of experts to the senior management, partly to relieve the managing directors who can now concentrate more on strategic issues.
One of the challenges in the future will be pricing. Bartmann said that the management has begun to look into the opportunities to adapt the pricing and offer to more regional needs. This came after Globetrotter opened its 13th and apparently last mega store in the southwestern city of Stuttgart in September, giving gives the 35-year-old north German retailer more weight in the southern part.
The store in Stuttgart spreads over 4,500 square meters on four floors. It has required investments of €6 million. One of its most interesting features is a 230-sqm. children's section with several amenities. It uses iPads and QR codes, and it offers a click-and-collect service. Globetrotter has closed down the previous Stuttgart store of Woick, a retailer that it took over recently, but it is keeping its three other stores in the region, which have been renamed as Globetrotter.
While it is challenging for a retailer to offer different prices at different locations because of its own online advertising, which works on a national scale, the chain sees some opportunities here – and also some necessities. Google, for example, is increasingly offering the possibility to search on a regional basis. Weather conditions and – very importantly – the different schedules for school holidays around the country encourage the company to have a closer look at regional pricing. Bartmann emphasized, however, that this is just the starting point of its experiments and that it has quite a way to go to find reliable data and to make decisions based on the findings.