WILTON, Conn. (BRAIN) – Dorel Sports is reorganizing its apparel division. The company is opening a new facility later this year that it's calling the Apparel Center of Excellence in Vancouver, British Columbia. It will handle design, development, sourcing, marketing and rapid prototyping for its Sugoi, Sombrio and Cannondale apparel lines.
As part of the restructuring, Dorel will move back-office functions for the apparel division to the company's Wilton, Conn., offices, the headquarters for Cycling Sports Group. This includes customer service, warranty, finance and IT — all of which are currently handled by Sugoi at its Burnaby, British Columbia, headquarters. The apparel business was run separately before and the move integrates it within the operational structure that already exists for Dorel Sports' other brands.
Warehousing will move to Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., to a facility that already supports Dorel Sports' other brands.
The company is also bringing bike apparel sales in house for Sugoi. Dorel Sports' outside rep force will take over sales of bike apparel in the U.S., however, independent reps will still handle sales of Sugoi running apparel. The company notified independent reps last week of the change. The transition will happen over the next few months and should be completed by fall. CSG's sales team will manage the independent rep force.
This sales structure will only change in the U.S. It will remain the same in Canada and other international markets.
Peter Woods, president and CEO of Dorel Sports, said that about 20 people would be let go as part of the organizational changes. Employees affected are being given six months' notice on the changes.
Woods said Dorel Sports has a strong distribution of reps across the U.S. and will be adding staff in its customer service department in Wilton. As of Nov. 1, 2015, the CSG sales team in the U.S. will become the primary sales channel for Sugoi and Sombrio brands to U.S. retailers focused on the cycling category.
"The advantage for retailers is that they will have a single point of contact on the account and business moving forward," Woods said. "This is part of improving the structural support for the apparel organization and making it easy to do business with us for our dealers.
"We are committed to apparel with our portfolio of brands that include Sombrio, Cannondale and Sugoi," he added.
Ian Domaas will head up the new apparel center as vice president and general manager for apparel, Dorel Sports. Domaas has been with Sugoi since 2010. His former roles included manager of manufacturing; manager of custom process development; director of purchasing, planning and production; and most recently, vice president of operations for Sugoi, after Kyle Weiner, Sugoi's, president, left the company.
