Bushwalk Australia

Happily browsing and shopping along Kent St, Sydney the other day and got chatting with one of the sales staff. Found out that Mountain Equipments and Trek&Travel are of the one parent company. No wonder there are some similarities in the two's approaches. Are any of the other stores being co-owned or have joint interests?

GPSGuided wrote:or have joint interests?

Mountain Designs and Columbia I believe.

Ummm... Thanks. The field of competition just got so much smaller.

Snowgum/Scout Outdoor and Annapurna.

md's and colombia are no longer the same ownership in AU/NZ

md's stock of columbia was pretty mixed, some new gear some old gear. possibly to avoid clashing too much with their own lineup. big lineup of columbia footwear. limited lineup of their clothes... and now they are stocking salomon clothing line...

wayno wrote:md's stock of columbia was pretty mixed, some new gear some old gear. possibly to avoid clashing too much with their own lineup. big lineup of columbia footwear. limited lineup of their clothes... and now they are stocking salomon clothing line...

They have a habit of mixing their MD branded clothing right next to or into the rack of Columbia's. Very naughty.

Mountain Equipment used to be owned by 2 older guys - Arthur Creighton and another guy named Geoff ( can't remember his last name ) - I was employed there for 5 years. They also owned a store down the road which is now called Trek n Travel I think?. I am pretty sure 1 of them sold out their share.

KANANGRABOYD wrote:Mountain Equipment used to be owned by 2 older guys - Arthur Creighton and another guy named Geoff ( can't remember his last name ) - I was employed there for 5 years. They also owned a store down the road which is now called Trek n Travel I think?. I am pretty sure 1 of them sold out their share.

Yes, Mountain Equipment, Trek&Travel and Southern Cross (upstairs in Trek&Travel) are all under the same umbrella. That's confirmed. I do like their range of products though.

This is a little off subject but could someone tell me if Macpac is owned by Kathmandu?

DannyS wrote:This is a little off subject but could someone tell me if Macpac is owned by Kathmandu?

No. It's majority owned by the same person who used to own Kathmandu,sold it, and now owns Chickenfeed, Go Lo and Macpac.

blacksheep wrote:

DannyS wrote:This is a little off subject but could someone tell me if Macpac is owned by Kathmandu?

No. It's majority owned by the same person who used to own Kathmandu,sold it, and now owns Chickenfeed, Go Lo and Macpac.

Was it the changing of ownership that contributed or caused to the decline of Macpac?

blacksheep wrote:

DannyS wrote:This is a little off subject but could someone tell me if Macpac is owned by Kathmandu?

No. It's majority owned by the same person who used to own Kathmandu,sold it, and now owns Chickenfeed, Go Lo and Macpac.

Cam would you disagree that Jan now has a 100% shareholding in Macpac?

As for Chickenfeed - does it even still exist?

Strider wrote:

blacksheep wrote:

DannyS wrote:This is a little off subject but could someone tell me if Macpac is owned by Kathmandu?

No. It's majority owned by the same person who used to own Kathmandu,sold it, and now owns Chickenfeed, Go Lo and Macpac.

Cam would you disagree that Jan now has a 100% shareholding in Macpac?

As for Chickenfeed - does it even still exist?

she doesn't own 100%.

Business ownership are rarely 100%.

DannyS wrote:

blacksheep wrote:

DannyS wrote:This is a little off subject but could someone tell me if Macpac is owned by Kathmandu?

No. It's majority owned by the same person who used to own Kathmandu,sold it, and now owns Chickenfeed, Go Lo and Macpac.

Was it the changing of ownership that contributed or caused to the decline of Macpac?

Read this: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4473
and this: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=4409

If you still have more questions, blacksheep knows more about Macpac than many others here.

blacksheep wrote:md's and colombia are no longer the same ownership in AU/NZ

OK thanks Cam, info came from an MD's staff member I was taking to some time ago but has obviously since changed.

GPSGuided wrote:Business ownership are rarely 100%.

Yes but I was putting it in a way that could be answered non-specifically

I just read the links you posted icefest and Wow! ok my only excuse is that I'm relatively new to this forum and thank god I wasn't molested by other readers , I didn't realise it was such a hot topic
Anyway question answered and I humbly withdraw any further queries

DannyS wrote:I just read the links you posted icefest and Wow! ok my only excuse is that I'm relatively new to this forum and thank god I wasn't molested by other readers , I didn't realise it was such a hot topic
Anyway question answered and I humbly withdraw any further queries

Perfectly legitimate question in my mind and those earlier threads are now 3 years old. Otherwise I get the impression that all the outdoor gear stores are doing pretty well, including Macpac. Minor business cycle chop but that's it. They may change their target market and no longer suit certain individuals, but that's hardly "not doing well".

DannyS
All those topics were posted in the days where all I did was lurk. Nowadays I sometimes even speak.

It still is a relevant topic though. Personally I think macpack is still pretty good, even if you have to wait for a sale to get decent prices.

GPSGuided wrote:

DannyS wrote:I just read the links you posted icefest and Wow! ok my only excuse is that I'm relatively new to this forum and thank god I wasn't molested by other readers , I didn't realise it was such a hot topic
Anyway question answered and I humbly withdraw any further queries

Perfectly legitimate question in my mind and those earlier threads are now 3 years old. Otherwise I get the impression that all the outdoor gear stores are doing pretty well, including Macpac. Minor business cycle chop but that's it. They may change their target market and no longer suit certain individuals, but that's hardly "not doing well".

Yeah point taken, I think I was referring more to the down turn in quality. I knew their products many years ago and in my mind they held the bar for quality, I've only recently re-entered and was a little shocked when I entered one of their stores for some equipment. But your right, things are always morphing and changing, I was just curious?

DannyS wrote:Yeah point taken, I think I was referring more to the down turn in quality. I knew their products many years ago and in my mind they held the bar for quality, I've only recently re-entered and was a little shocked when I entered one of their stores for some equipment. But your right, things are always morphing and changing, I was just curious?

Pretty classic for consumer brands!

Look at current mass market clothing brands, just about all of them started with premium quality niche products to establish their branding. Once established, they start to venture down the food chain with cheaper mass market products (with expected quality drops) and expand their market size and make a killing on revenue. Macpac looks to be of that exact mould. Nothing wrong with it but just how companies evolve.

GPSGuided wrote:Happily browsing and shopping along Kent St, Sydney the other day and got chatting with one of the sales staff. Found out that Mountain Equipments and Trek&Travel are of the one parent company. No wonder there are some similarities in the two's approaches. Are any of the other stores being co-owned or have joint interests?

Paddy Pallin: owns outdoor agencies who import scarpa, osprey plus others. http://www.outdooragencies.com.au/brands

MD's: import zamberlin,mammut they own outdoor performance who import 5.10, and burghaus
Outdoor performance currently have the rights to Columbia and are selling brought as the sky group http://www.skyegroup.com.au/html/s01_home/home.asp will be taking over the distribution and launching their own stores stocking mountain hardware and Columbia at the start of 2014.

Kathmandu was sold by jan Cameron in 2006 to private equity and was floated on the share market in 2009.

Mountain equipment, trek and travel and southern cross equipment are all part of the Outdoor Life Group.

Macpac went to off shore manufactoring in 2003 was purchased by Mouton Noir in 2008 and current owners are jan Cameron, bernie Wicht and Pierre van Noorden.