Bold Brand With Purpose – How VAUDE Is Leading the Way

Authentically present

When, at 5 p.m. the company’s head office closes, most desks and workstations are empty, including the CEO’s. This is unusual for an SME, most of which close at the end of the regular work day. But VAUDE’s staff, from the seamstresses to the CEO, marches to the beat of a different drummer, in that the company’s working hours are family friendly, including for Dr. Antje von Dewitz. Since 2009 she has headed the company, founded by her father in 1974, that makes outdoor clothing, tents, bicycle bags and hiking boots. The company is doing extremely well, despite or more likely due to the freedom accorded the company’s staff, who rejoice in the fact that meetings always have a preset adjournment time and that they’re allowed to take time off for parental leave and the like. For at this company, even fathers who hold managerial positions take parental leave, without having to worry about it ruining their future career prospects. Word seems to have gotten around in the meantime in this regard, and VAUDE certainly can’t complain about a lack of job applications, which pour in from throughout Germany. This is how successful and authentic employer branding works.

The lure of life in a small town

VAUDE is located in a relatively small German city called Obereisenbach, in the state of Bavaria. Which means that it’s pretty far away from gentrified urban life and all the trendiness it entails. And actually it’s a place where one of the first phrases that springs to mind is “staff shortage” – particularly for a company that needs creative people who can come up with new ideas to keep the company competitive in a very saturated outdoor-equipment market. VAUDE employs around 500 people, with staff turnover in the low one-digit range and an average employee age of 35. And while there are no exact figures available as to how many of those employees do sports, the number is likely to be quite high. For this is a locale whose drawbacks soon become outright advantages, with the Lake of Constance and the Alps almost within hailing distance. “We’re by no means the region’s largest employer, but we’re certainly the most appealing,” notes the company’s CEO, Dr. Antje von Dewitz, who sets an example when it comes to working hours, and speaks quickly and with exceptional focus. In other words, digressions aren’t her thing when it comes to either her company or mountaineering. For in order to survive – and thrive – in both of these realms, it’s essential to get right to the point

Sustainability

With annual sales exceeding €100 million, VAUDE is far from being a giant in its industry with a lengthy track record of rising growth rates. Instead, the company is now engaged in a process of consolidation in which ever growing numbers of smaller brands are being integrated into the company. “I don’t think the market is saturated,” says Ms von Dewitz, “but there are certainly a lot more players than there used to be, particularly lowpriced vendors.” Which hasn’t prevented VAUDE from reporting annual sales increases ranging from six to eight percent. This can only be achieved with a portfolio that opens up urban outdoors and other new segments, and that meets exacting demands in terms of being weatherproof and highly functional. What’s equally important, though, is for a company like VAUDE to invest in innovation – an activity the company pursues in strict accordance with the tenets of sustainability. For the past 17 years the company has been Bluesign ecolabel-certified (granted to companies whose textile products are free of harmful substances). The company also has EMAS eco-label certification, realises ecofriendly production processes, and is always on the lookout for new materials that are harmful to neither users nor the environment. “In collaboration with numerous partners, we’re trying to develop fleece made from wood fibres, zippers and straps made from castor oil and milk-based felt.” And: “For our repairs, we work with iFixit and have initiated a used-products platform on eBay.” Latest initiative: renting out tents and rucksacks to people who only need them once in a while.

Design is the key

With such initiatives, which also include training for retailers aimed at enabling them to persuade their customers how important product sustainability and durability are; and this in turn is bolstering the company’s market position and clout. “What we’re mainly focusing on are measures that extend the lifetimes of our products” Ms von Dewitz notes – an effort that also includes making products more amenable to repair. To this end, the company’s products are designed in such a way that components such as jacket zippers, which are particularly subject to wear and tear, are readily replaceable. Which in turn means that the company’s designers need to factor in such requirements early in the design phase. The company’s 13-member design team, headed by Mario Schlegel, is divided into two groups – one for clothing and the other for tents, sleeping bags and rucksacks. “For about five years we’ve been making design the pivotal element of our operations, so as to better communicate our brand values and our corporate culture.” Doesn’t the company’s emphasis on sustainability hamper its creativity? “At first, glance perhaps, since the designs require that certain materials, technologies or dyeing processes are excluded from consideration right off the bat,” Ms. von Dewitz notes. “But we’ve also been seeing that far from limiting our creativity, these restrictions strengthen it.” The design process at VAUDE also includes market research, to which end a four-person innovation team scours the market for new developments and keeps in touch with both partners and suppliers. The company’s innovation machine is currently running at top speed for textile materials in particular. “A growing number of sustainable materials are coming on the market,” says designteam leader Mario Schlegel, whose background is in mechanical engineering.

Being open means being believable

VAUDE has always been a company that believes in and practices transparency – an attribute that is clearly evidenced during conversations. CEO Dr. Antje von Dewitz is not only totally present in the company, but also says what she means, without beating around the bush. She’s simply incapable of speaking in bureaucratise, and instead conveys authenticity that is reflected throughout the company. Take production for example. Although nearly 70 percent of the company’s products are sold in DACH countries (Germany, Austria and Switzerland), only a quarter of them are made in Germany. As for the remainder, Ms von Dewitz specifies that “technical apparel is mainly manufactured in Asia. It would simply be unfeasible to make these products here in Germany, so for decades now our entire value-creation chain has been located in Asia, including manufacturers of equipment and materials.” But VAUDE is also committed to fair working conditions across the entire supply chain. As a member of the Fair Wear Foundation (FWF), VAUDE is bound by a strict code of conduct for its Asian production sites. For its outstanding achievements in this regard, in 2015 the company was granted leader status – the highest such FWF category. What’s more, on its own initiative VAUDE has established a training programme for its Asian materials suppliers, with a view to helping them implement acceptable social and ecological standards. The company’s main Vietnamese offshore contractor has around 1,000 employees, and mainly makes rucksacks and luggage. It is owned by VAUDE’s founder, Albrecht von Dewitz, who in 2008 renovated the production facility, which was once a textile factory, and now runs the company with a female Vietnamese CEO

Growth in a tight market

Apart from sustainability, accountability is also a core brand value to which VAUDE adheres. This means accountability vis-à-vis the environment, employees in Germany and offshore, and in the various regions. In 2001, VAUDE entered into a joint venture with the German city of Tettnang to establish a day-care centre, in Obereisenbach, that has become very popular. The company’s organic-foods cafeteria is open to the public and the town’s swimming pool would probably have long since closed down had it not been for VAUDE’s support. VAUDE also has a factory outlet of long standing, which has a cafe, and groups from both within and outside the industry regularly tour the plant. The media also covers VAUDE on a regular basis, and Ms von Dewitz is much in demand for interviews. “I’ve lost count of how many interviews I gave last year,” she says. “But this saves us money for marketing, and we use that money to promote sustainability instead.” This is also confirmed by the very long list of awards of myriad kinds that the company has been awarded – a list to which yet another prestigious prize has now been added.