Haglöfs, the Swedish outdoor company, is recruiting a U.K. country manager after it split from Andy Williams at the beginning of this month. The separation follows a claim by Williams last year, who demanded compensation for helping to build up the brand as its former distributor in the U.K. This claim contributed to non-recurring expenses of 8.3 million SEK (€0.8m-$1.3m) at Haglöfs last year, which decreased the company’s operating profit to 21.9 million SEK (€2.3m-$3.7m), down from 29.9 million SEK in 2006. These exceptional expenses further cover the sale of the Alfa footwear company and compensation to In Case, a U.S. company, which complained about the use of the same name for a Haglöfs backpack. The year was generally morose for Haglöfs, with a sales increase of just 3.8 percent to 427.7 million SEK (€45.1m-$71.7m), due to logistical headaches and a sharp downturn in Norwegian sales. However, Haglöfs has recovered with a jump of 31 percent in pre-orders for the winter and it is preparing the wider launch of its footwear range, which had only been sold in Scandinavia so far (more in our regular issue).
