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Burnside (NDL) Founder Shares Thoughts On Maintaining Margin & Carry-Over

3 months after reporting a 35% increase in summer business, Burnside (NDL) Founder Herm isn’t as positive in his outlook for business this winter. SOURCE caught up with Herm again to find out how business at Burnside is faring and how he thinks the snowboard industry can make a come back from this year.

Herm, we last spoke 3 months ago. You were 35% up with summer business… can we assume it’s a different story now at the end of November?
As expected, COVID has resulted in a difficult start to snowsport sales this winter season. This probably won’t change anytime soon as snow countries are closed to foreign tourists – bad news for snowboard sales, especially in the lower countries. So, I’m sorry to say we are roughly 70% behind sales compared to this time last year. On the other hand, thanks to COVID, we experienced a big sales growth in skateboarding, clothing and sneakers that seems like it will pull us through the winter.

Tell us about your biggest concerns for the snowboard market this winter.
The panic sales that started the week before Black Friday, for sure. These sales are not good for overall business. I would like to ask retailers not to discount, at least not too soon; let’s hope that most of our stock will retain its value, particularly the stuff that will be carried over to next season. In the end, discounting is bad for customers too as they can never be certain they are paying the right price for the right product at the right shop.

And what you believe to be the biggest opportunities?
That the whole snowboard industry starts to see that to create a healthier environment in the future, it’s better to produce less and have more products carry-over. It’s obvious that replacing “old” for new less frequently is more sustainable. And when you think about it, it’s strange that we reduce the value of the same model of a product because it’s given a slightly different look. I’ve spoken with several brands that have said they will try to keep this year’s models in next season’s collection so customers will have a choice in styles. I think that this is positive.

Please expand…
If brands let next season’s collection be largely the same as this year’s collection, it won’t be necessary to drop product prices. For now, I think it would be beneficial for brands to slow down the development of new graphics and models and put those ideas in the safe for the moment. In the future, brands have to produce less, carry-over more and perhaps even produce two-year models. And, it’s very important that they stop feeding the big online discounters; they destroy the market for everybody, both producers and consumers.

How are you working with brands to ensure a healthy future for your business and theirs?
To prevent (up until now, rather healthy) businesses from collapsing, it’s necessary for brands and distributors to put effort into taking stock back where shops are overstocked and restock shops in areas that have sold out. However, brands have to be aware that it won’t be those big discounting webstores that are sold out because they’d already discounted before Black Friday! That stupid sale doesn’t help at all! I’ve been the owner of Burnside for 32 years now and we’ve never had a sale! We would rather give a good customer something extra, like a present. We’ve noticed that that is more appreciated!

Your Whatsapp customer support still going strong?
Our Whatsapp shop is still doing ok and we do what we can to offer the customer a positive feeling about the upcoming winter season. We provide customers with all support we can to try and ease them ahead of the start of the winter season.

What else can we do?

I have to say that because we don’t have an online store, we don’t sell much to other countries. This may be the first season we will miss out on that extra income. So maybe, we will add-in a good, healthy webshop next to our brick & mortar!

How do you predict the winter is going to unfold?
I wish the winter would unfold like the wakeboard season: A late start with unexpectedly good sales. The Alps will need to be open otherwise we’ll lose too much income, but it’ll have to be all countries or nothing. And if so, we hope it will be a very long season… until the last bit of snow has melted! I wish all shops with a good heart for snowboarding all the luck in the world!

I hope to see a lot of you in Alpbach at Shops 1st Try. We sure will do our very best to be there! Cheerio my friends, we will survive!