Mammut sells Toko to Swix Sport

The Swiss Mammut Sports Group AG will sell the Toko brand, including all of its activities and products, to a new subsidiary of the Norwegian company Swix Sport AS, effective September 1, 2010.

By taking this step, Mammut Sports Group AG is underlining its intention of focusing on the outdoor sports market and its main brand MAMMUT. "MAMMUT's rapid growth over recent years and the challenges of its future worldwide expansion require all our efforts and these are the driving factors behind this transaction," states Rolf G. Schmid, CEO of Mammut Sports Group.  

Toko, which occupies a leading position in central Europe, has a long tradition in ski waxing and today offers a wide range of Swiss-quality ski wax, tools and care products for top performance. The brand's logo, with its yellow on black colours, is well known in all international ski markets. Toko represents around 5% of the Mammut Sports Group's annual turnover.

After the purchase, Toko will maintain its Swiss identity and Swix Sport AS will pursue a two brand strategy, with separate product portfolios and distribution channels. Both brands, Toko and Swix, will benefit from collective investments in product development, production and logistics. "Toko's leading position in central Europe and strong presence in alpine markets, together with our nordic focus is a perfect match in order to offer new and superior products in the future," states Ulf Bjerknes, CEO of Swix Sport AS.  

Swix, the new brand owner, will take over the entire Toko team and operate the Toko business out of Altstätten (Switzerland), Toko's former home. The current Toko brand manager, Thorsten Walter, will lead this new company called Toko-Swix Sport AG. "We are very pleased that in Swix Sport AS Toko has found a new owner that knows the business by heart and is able to take advantage of everything we have built up over the years," states Rolf G. Schmid.

It is important to recognize that Toko will retain its independence and identity as a Swiss company.  Ian Harvey will continue to run the Toko brand for the US market and all Toko sales reps will be retained as per Ian's judgment.  Toko marketing activities will continue to be independent from Swix.

For questions or further information, please contact:
Steve Poulin, President Swix Sport USA, steve@swixsport.com

Ian Harvey, Toko USA Brand Manager, Ian@TokoUS.com