Jonathan White
Sheffield, SYK (UK)
Role(s):
Founder/Owner/Principal
Samurai Distribution ltd
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Startup
Location:
Sheffield
Industry:
Wholesale
Year Founded:
2005
Number Employees:
1-10 people
Description:
Samurai Distribution has grown from a small opportunity selling a few skis towards a collective of sales representatives and marketing agents. The company is still growing, increasing its presence in the wintersports industry and growing its network of shops. As the shop contacts are growing the brands interest in Samurai has increased. With time Samurai grown to be a collective of sales reps across Europe with a large portfolio of Brands for those reps to promote. The market in sports brand distribution is changing due to international changes. The market is changing form a small number of large Brands dominating the market to lots of small independent brands filling the market. The old system of one distributor working with 3-4 of the major bands in a country has changed, now the major brands have centralised their distribution management to one office in Europe. They are employing one rep for an area controlled centrally with a central distribution warehouse. This is an attempt to consolidate and reduce costs to the Brand and reduce the costs to the shops. This is to give better price incentives to shops to promote the bigger brands. This change in the way the market is worked means their needs to be a new distribution system for the smaller brands. This will be done through collections of reps working from a central distribution warehouse for lots of smaller brands. Samurai Distribution is looking to start this new system from the grown up, bringing together established sales reps and creating its own. In this way Samurai is looking to work with new upcoming brands and established small independent brands. Working together as a collection of brands and reps the benefits and incentives can be brought back to the shops, as well as centralising the brand marketing and promotion.
Online Shop/Marketplace. (URL removed) (MoMo) is Samurai distributions public sales presence. The online will be put live in Summer 08, this will allow for sales of Samurai Distributions products as well as those of other distribution companies. The shop will be based as a marketplace based on the Amazon model where products are sold on MoMo however they are shipped form other shops and/or distributors. This system has several advantages over a standard shop, firstly it provides Samurai with zero risk profit and it allows the shops/distributors to have an outlet to help clear their stock.
Samurai is a British Company working across Europe, with the bulk of sales expected through France, Switzerland and Austria. This puts it in a relatively unique position within British Business in the credit crisis being seen in 2008. France has seen none of the credit problems dude to the countries unique banking system and laws restricting personal credit. Therefore the consumer downturn seen in the UK is not present in the French markets. Switzerland and Austria have not been affected by the credit problems incurred through the US banks as their banking is based in Switzerland. The Swiss banking has not had the credit return issues like the US banks and the inflation and customer spending has been unaffected. These factors mean Samurai’s sales are only subject to Briton’s market changes slightly. This provides a more robust and consistent market for the brands Samurai is working with. The wintersport industry had seen several years of significantly reduced sales, both in retail and travel. Two very bad snow winters in Europe have had the affect of people cancelling holidays and subsequently retail sales have fallen as well. Winter 2007-2008 saw a marked increase in snow falls and as a result and increase in travel to the resorts. The winters see a roughly 11year cycle in snow conditions following the world year on year weather patterns. The sales have also started to increase relieving the (in some cases large) held stock by shops. This shows for a boom in the 2008-2009 season.