The UK firms carving out a profit in the world of skiing
Participation in snowsports may be falling, but as Jack Torrance finds, it’s not all downhill
Skiing has long been a favoured winter pastime for the British, but since the financial crisis the industry has been on a downhill slope.
Wholesale UK ski sales dropped around 40pc to just 24,000 units between 2008/9 and 2015/16, according to data from Statista, while regular participation in snowsports in England fell around 24pc to around 140,000 in the same period.
A report earlier this year by the Ski Club of Great Britain suggested the sport is struggling to attract new blood, warning: “Unless more people come into skiing than leave through natural attrition, the market will shrink putting pressure on those organisations that exist to serve the market.”
But while the wider market may have found itself under a snow cloud, a few entrepreneurs have found it is possible to grow a ski business by carving out a niche. Jöttnar might sound like a particularly angry Norse god but it’s actually a fastgrowing UK brand catering to skiers and mountain climbers. “We saw what we thought was a gap in the market for a British brand making extremely highquality and technically focused clothing for skiing and mountaineering,” says Steve Howarth, who started the business with fellow former Royal Marine Tommy Kelly.
Many of the larger outdoorsy brands like Berghaus and The North Face have broadened out to sell all manner of branded T-shirts, hoodies and laptop bags. “There’s a bit of distaste in the market for that among core technical consumers which opens up little gaps for people like us,” Howarth says.
The top line is growing 30pc annually and this year the company expects to turn over more than £1m. It’s also just taken on a “seven-figure” investment from London venture capital firm Venrex, with which it plans to boost its presence in the US, which already accounts for more than 15pc of sales.
“What we’re doing at the moment is planning a path to profitability which we should achieve next year,” Howarth says.
At the same time, some skiers want T-shirts and hoodies. It’s only turning over £150,000, but Syndicate Clothing’s eye-catching apparel has become an increasingly common sight on the slopes.
“It looks bigger and shinier on social media, but it’s still done in a spare room,” admits founder Chris Nicoll, who goes by the name of Sketch. “We all dream it’s something that’s going to make us rich, but the purpose of it when I started was to get enough to go away and do a season.”
It’s not just clothes. While the hardware market is dominated by US, Scandi, French and Austrian brands, UK ones do exist. Some even do their manufacturing here, generally with a focus on high-spec, customised gear with prices to match.
New among their number is Nix, founded by industrial design graduate James Mechie, who builds all of its skis and snowboards by hand in a workshop off London’s Caledonian Road.
“There’s a big global trend towards customisation and personalisation,” he says.
Nix’s made-to-measure skis sell for £795-£875 a pair, while a fully bespoke set can cost upwards of £1,375. As Mechie makes them all himself, capacity is fixed at around two or three pairs per week for now.
Outsourcing production can make it easier to reach scale much quicker, as the founders of Leeds-based Whitedot Skis have discovered. The company sells around 1,000 pairs of skis, which are pressed in Poland, per year, priced from €498 to €998 (£436£875). It has grown by focusing on off-piste skiing.
“As people progress they get better and want to explore a little bit more,” says Simon Henwood, head of partnerships at Ski Club GB. “The ski technology is trying to keep up with the demand. They have to have a large surface area because they have to be able to float on snow that hasn’t been damped down,” adds Whitedot’s founder and chief executive Mark Perkins.
Now Whitedot is trying to raise investment as it explores the possibility of launching a new direct to consumer model instead of handing a big chunk of its margins to distributors.
A big challenge around the corner for the industry is pressure from the newly weak pound and the threat of a failure to secure a frictionless trade deal in Britain’s Brexit negotiations.
Each year, 25,000 Brits head to the Alps to work in chalets and ski hire shops, so the whole industry is facing up to potential upheaval.
There may still be some difficult terrain ahead to negotiate.
‘As people progress they get better and want to explore a bit more’