Since the acquisition of Lowe Alpine by Rab last year, the two brands have been busy merging their operations step by step. Effective with the beginning of this year, a new distribution company is in place outside Munich to serve the German and Austrian markets for both brands. The company is called Equip Deutschland and replaces a subsidiary of Asolo, the company that used to own Lowe. Basically, the new organization takes over the sales force of the former Lowe operations led by Werner Hecke, sales director. The managing directors of the new company are Matt Gowar, managing director of Equip U.K., and Herbert Lechner, who has been running the Lowe business in Central Europe for many years.