Nautilus 2002 Annual Report Download - page 15

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our products are virtually free. Our public relations strategy in the retail sector is to build awareness of the general benefits of fitness and
specific contributions of our products to a healthy and fit lifestyle.
TRADE SHOWS: There are three national trade shows that are very important to the Company's retail division: the Health & Fitness Business
Expo, the industry's premier showcase for retail fitness products; Interbike, the bicycle industry's premier gathering; and Supershow, the
mega-trade show representing retail products in virtually every category. Trade shows also provide excellent opportunities to meet face-to-face
with our customers and the press to obtain invaluable feedback by being able to test marketing messages, receive customer input on product
designs, and evaluate the competition.
INTERNET: The Company currently maintains and directs customers to our Nautilus, Schwinn Fitness, StairMaster, and Trimline websites,
which can be found at www.nautilus.com, www.schwinnfitness.com, www.stairmaster.com, and www.hebbindustries.com. These websites
contain company and product information.
INTERNATIONAL APPROACH
Our international operations are headquartered in Switzerland, which, through its central location, multi-cultural environment, and multi-lingual
population, is an excellent base for our international operation. We have integrated all of our brands from an operational standpoint and are
distributing our products through a network of over 90 distributors in over 50 countries divided among three regions:
o Asia/Pacific
o Europe/Middle East/Africa
o Central/South America
In each of these regions, we have responsible sales people and third party warehouses (except Central/South America which we support from
our United States distribution facilities) to deliver our products in a timely and cost effective manner. Currently, we have no long-lived assets
outside the U.S. Communication amongst our business partners within each region is essential to our strategy so we may achieve product
support, innovative marketing activities, and global brand recognition.
In our largest markets, the United Kingdom and Germany, we operate our own offices, which possess a team of sales representatives that focus
not only on selling to fitness clubs, but also on the government, hotel, and medical/paramedical markets. During 2002, we also added an office
in Italy as it represents another market we perceive to be important.
We have formed alliances in most markets with distributors to sell commercial products from our Nautilus, Schwinn, and StairMaster brands.
This enables us to sell "package deals" to international fitness clubs, which may prefer to buy from one supplier that can offer the broadest array
of products at a competitive price. By building our portfolio of brand names, we have greater ability to compete in the international marketplace
in which our main competitors have benefited from the ability to negotiate "package deals" for many years. We believe our brand names have
strong recognition in the international marketplace, which will allow us to compete more effectively in the future.
Canada represents another significant market for our business. We sell products from our commercial/retail and direct segment product
portfolios to dealers and retail stores within Canada. Sales within Canada are predominantly generated from our U.S. operations.
-15-
2003. EDGAR Online, Inc.