Corona Diaries #17, Hans Mayer, Spade Kayaks (Germany/Austria)
Outside, rivers are starting to flow and spring is around the corner, and the sun is shining high. Yet around the world, many are grounded at home and it seems likely others soon will be. Though difficult, let’s repeat it, folks this is THE THING TO DO! It is necessary and worth it!
So, we at Kayak Session decided to take the opportunity to catch up with our friends in the whitewater community and see how they are coping across the globe.
Today we talk with European whitewater scene legend, Spade Kayaks founder , Hans Mayer based in Mattrei in Austria, who also just opened a paddle shop called the River Store (http://riverstore.at/)
We are allowed to go for a run and shops start to open again in a week.
How zit Hans, where are you and what is the situation like where you are?
I live in Matrei in Osttirol, a small town of around 5000. We are surrounded by more than 3000m high mountains, a fantastic scenery. Spring is finally coming and its getting warm. Our whole valley is virus free at the moment and the quarantine is loosened a bit. We are allowed to go for a run and shops start to open again in a week.
Is Spade still delivering boats at the moment?
We are starting slowly again with shipping, but still 90% of preorders are not in the shops. We have a lot of orders for the new Queen of Hearts and hope we get them into the shops soon. We also planned a second new boat this season, a river-runner, but that will have to wait until we have a better overview how the market will react to the current situation.
How has Covid-19 impacted your plans for the season?
Personally my 6 year old son Laurenz is at home, as schools are closed until May. He is taking it easy and we have a lot of quality time together. My wife is a bookkeeper and busy at work with all the new government help regulations. The ski areas closed 2 months earlier, so my winter job as ski instructor stopped abruptly. I also do not think that our kayak-school will be active before summer and not even that timeline is sure. I also work part-time as a Ranger in the Hohe Tauern National Park here in Matrei, that is also closed for the next months to come. So income is close to zero at the moment. With Spade Kayaks we had the best preorder ever for this season, now if we can keep last years level, we would be more than happy.
What is your prediction for this year – are you pessimistic, reasonable optimistic?
I am and was always an optimistic person, just makes life easier. We are all facing the same or similar problems. At the moment here in Austria the situation is getting better, but to get back to normal life, we need all countries to get over this.
« If nobody is promoting the sport, but everybody tries to win the race of being the biggest online dealer with the lowest prices, one day he will perhaps win, but there will be much less customers.«
How are you guys trying to go around the difficulty we all face at the moment? Pushing the online sales?
We are selling our kayaks through our dealers. We need to get all the preordered boats to them, that is quite a task at the moment, as all the rotomolded boats are made in Italy. The Ace of Spades is made in Germany and we have plenty on stock. At the moment only one Swiss dealer cancelled his preorder, so we have no stock of boats, that we would have to get rid of with direct online sales. There are a lot of discussions in the kayak industry, how the future of kayak sales will be. Corran Addison started a thread, that we need to rise prices, so the dealers and also we manufacturers make money, so we can grow the sport. To be honest, in the 5 years I run Spade Kayaks, I made no money at all, instead debt is growing. So, at the one side I agree with Corran, on the other side our European kayak market is highly price competitive.
And that is the reason why I do not like online sales so much, all these online dealers try to steal sales from dealers in areas far away from their own shop. That works only with dumping prices. In the old days kayaks dealers did not sit in front of computers and destroyed their own market. They went paddling all season long with tons of people, the shops were a social meeting point for paddlers, the dealers loved paddling and had time to talk with their customers. There is not even a hand full of these good and mostly successful oldstyle dealers anymore in the market. If nobody is promoting the sport, but everybody tries to win the race of being the biggest online dealer with the lowest prices, one day he will perhaps win, but there will be much less customers.
« My kayak school will be located in the shop and we will also offer service for paddlers like welding boats, cold beer, coffee, partys etc«
In what way can you help the retail business cope with the current situation?
With some dealers we are in constant contact, how to get them boats etc. Normally at this time of the year we support our dealers at their demo events. We also bought a second trailer, equipped with demo boats, that dealers can use for demo days as soon as travelling is allowed again.
Talking about retail business, tell us more about the River Store.
There are two sides of the River Store, one is nostalgia. I really miss the good times we had at the old La Ola shop in Rosenheim. That was an incredible time with lots of good memories. I hope we can set up a similar experience here in Matrei. And the other side is, that I need the shop to create some income for my family. Our valley with the Isel, a glacial river that you can paddle from April to October, is getting more popular every year. So I am positive that the new shop will be well accepted by local and visiting paddlers. It will be 90% whitewater and 10% Seakayak. We are 2 hours from the Soca and only a 2 and a half hour drive to the Mediterranean Sea, Venice lagoon etc. Also my kayak school will be located in the shop and we will also offer service for paddlers like welding boats, cold beer, coffee, partys etc
What is the Austrian population reaction to the stay home – is it respected?
Yup, mostly! People stay at home and take care of each other. We are lucky to have a virus specialist with his own laboratory in the region, that makes people feel safe.
Any words of wisdom for your fellow paddlers across the world?
Be postive! The rivers will keep flowing and will wait for us!
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