Camper growth fueled by markets outside of Europe

Camper has is sold worldwide by 2000 retailers across a network of 2800 stores. The Spanish shoemaker has been focusing on sales at its 150 stores across 40 countries, as well as 250 partner stores in the Asian, Russian, Mexican and Turkish markets.

“We have done well to diversify our distribution since entering into new markets in the nineties,” says Mariano Alonso De La Hera, Director of Sales at Camper. “The strategy has worked particularly will in Japan and China, where we envisage to have 40 new stores and stockists in the next three years.”

The brand already has five stores in Beijing and Shanghai but Camper seems keen to explore the continent further. “We are very interested in entering the South Korean market, because it is a region that is becoming more and more prominent in the fashion world.”

Switching to the other side of the globe, the Spanish brand is showing good results in the North American market. After opening two stores in Canada, the brand opened a further two stores in New York and Los Angeles. “Over the next three years we are looking to open 20 stores in the United States as well as an additional 5 to 10 stores in Canada. Between the months of February and March we will be opening in Santa Monica and Seattle,” says the Sales Director. “We are opening our first store in Brazil in March with an address in Sao Paulo. Our next target market is India. We are looking to enter this market in 2014.”

One thing is clear; the brand’s future growth will not be centered in Europe. “Sales in 2012 rose by 2%, with Europe appearing stable across all channels,” concluded Mariano Alonso De La Hera. The company’s real growth was seen in America, the BRIC countries and in Asia in general.

Camper, founded in 1975 by Llorenç Fluxa, makes 25% of its revenue in Spain and 75% internationally. In Europe, Italy is the second largest market, closely followed by France.


By Gianluca Bolelli