Osprey sells in over 30 countries across Europe, which markets have surprised you during the Coronavirus crisis?
The Nordic countries, and in particular Norway, have really surprised us at Osprey. In general, the Nordic countries took a really proactive and decisive approach to handling Covid, more targeted than the UK and elsewhere. As a result they never really closed for business, be that shops or more importantly for our industry ‘the outdoors’ – both the lifeblood of our sales. Norwegians especially have been going crazy for camping, backpacking and planning their summer holidays, all good for sales.
You operate in the hiking, biking, lifestyle and travel categories – how have these different categories performed during the crisis?
Travel has been severely hit for obvious reasons though is seeing a slow recovery as European travel/flights are opening up. Backpacking was also severely hit initially but the in the last month has had a major re-bound as consumers plan staycations and especially in the countries with more space, proper backpacking trips. Run, bike and multi-sport sales have all surged as consumers got re-connected with their local environments and the need to do different type of exercise than normal. If there is one positive outcome of Covid-19 I hope it is that more consumers have been introduced to the outdoors and new activities.
In the USA, Osprey’s own repair team have been sewing fabric masks for Colorado healthcare facilities, has Osprey in Europe participated in anything like this?
Osprey Europe promoted the US mask-making initiative in Europe and we imported some of the masks made by our team in the US which we gave to local organisations.