The Swabian pants and fit specialist Maier Sports has restructured its sales with the appointment of Tobias Schmid as Head of Sales National on November 1, 2022 and with Maximilian Briem as Head of Sales International on April 2023.
Lothar Baisch, who has been with the company for more than 25 years and, as Managing Director, is responsible for the areas of sales and marketing, will thus hand over the operational management of sales to younger hands and will focus on the strategic further development in the internationalization of the brand as well as on the brand positioning and -development focus.
“(Schmid) knows all of our customers, knows how the business works and identifies with our brand. I am convinced that he is a perfect fit for both the company and the Maier Sports brand, and it is with a very good feeling that I am handing over our trading partners to him, whom I have been able to look after for more than two decades,” Baisch comments on the appointment.
Schmid has extensive industry knowledge and is a sales expert in German sports and outdoor retail. The certified business and retail specialist started his professional career in the sports sector in 2007 in purchasing at Intersport in Heilbronn, where he held various positions, most recently as a senior buyer. In 2017, Schmid moved to Schöffel as Key Account Manager and was promoted to Sales Manager National in 2020. In this function he was responsible for the sales management of the Schöffel brand in Germany. A position that he will take over at Maier Sports in Köngen from November 1st.
“At Maier Sports, we are very consciously and with full conviction taking this path of personnel and structural reorganization of sales. Together with my fellow managing directors Simone Mayer and Tanja Kohler, it is very important to us to position the brand and thus the company in a future-oriented manner; I like to call it our Next Generation project,” adds Baisch.
Maximilian Briem becomes Head of Sales International
The position of Head of Sales International will be filled in April 2023 by Maximilian Briem, who will become vacant on October 31 due to the departure of Michael Rilling. This will face a new challenge. “We would like to thank him very much for the work he has done and wish him all the best on his further path,” Baisch comments on the departure of the long-standing employee.
Briem already has extensive experience at Maier Sports. Two years ago, he switched from the Köngen brand to the outdoor label Millet to work in the field. “We couldn’t offer him any further professional development at Maier Sports at the time, so it was with a heavy heart that we had to let Maxi Briem go,” said Baisch on Briem’s return.
With Schmid and Briem, Maier Sports is handing over the sales management team to the next generation, a step that Baisch sees as a “strong signal to the employees, the field service team and of course to the retail partners”.