Mountain sports industry professionals from around the world have recognized Rossignol as a global leader in sustainability and communications.

In the era of climate change, we at Rossignol understand it’s our responsibility to help bring solutions to our century’s biggest challenges. “We’re opening a new chapter: a Rossignol Group ready to meet the moment, and to pass along a better planet to the next generation,” said CEO and President Vincent Wauters.

In 2020, Rossignol Group formalized its environmental commitments through a strong new policy that, since then, has sought to drastically minimize the company’s footprint.

Since October 2022, we’ve been strategically recommitting to our promise of corporate responsibility via the initiatives we’ve detailed in our Respect program, under the framework of a carefully crafted communications campaign that’s kept our customers, and the public, up to speed on our efforts, and kept us on our toes.

Every week since, we’ve outlined a new initiative via our social channels (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, website, newsletters). It’s a campaign that was thoroughly amplified with the launch of the world’s first recyclable ski, the Essential, which we announced at the beginning of December.

To that end, we also applied a green retrofit to our presence at events, including an eco-conscious booth and upcycled swag to give away, made from old skis. This was especially well-received and lauded by attendees of the 2022 High Five Festival in Annecy, France.

Our communication strategy on the environment has one goal at its core: to inform customers, competitors, and followers about our social and environmental commitments, and to help encourage them to engage on the same level.

Communication is a powerful agent of change when used creatively, helping to inspire others to act. Effective communication can help change habits and build a more sustainable society. Along those lines, we hope to become part of a larger wave of collective eco-consciousness, and to help to reshape the consumer landscape.

Our efforts in that regard were recently awarded with the top prize (#GPStrat) for communications from the Grands Prixs des Stratégies, as well as a gold medal for our Essential project.

This prize recognizes and rewards our massive team effort at Rossignol Group, and encourages us to continue on a path of honest and transparent communication.

As part of our ongoing commitment to reducing our environmental impact, Rossignol has recently entered into a partnership with French startup Fairly Made, an organization that specializes in tracing source materials through the supply chain.

We’ve engaged in a framework of exhaustive lifecycle analysis in order to bring transparency to our supply chain on how and where our products are made.

For our Spring-Summer 2023 collection, 150 items were analyzed by Fairly Made, and four impact criteria were measured in order to:

• Better understand four areas of production: material source, environmental impact, recyclability, and social impact
• Improve the efficiency of our supply chain and encourage our partners to do the same
• Find ways to further reduce the impacts of our future collections

Fairly Made’s comprehensive lifecycle analysis

The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a study of the impact of a garment on the basis of 16 criteria using data collected from the brand and its suppliers (composition of a material, weight of a garment, place of manufacture, miles traveled, etc.), so that the brand and consumers can have a 360° view of suppliers and products.

With Fairly Made’s help, we’ve been able to improve the standards in our supply chain throughout our Spring-Summer 2023 Collection, and bring into the open everything from raw material usage to the social and environmental impacts of every factory used within that chain.

As such, we’ve been able to fully understand the cradle-to-grave lifecycle of our products from the moment they leave our warehouse.

By scanning the QR code on the labels of our Spring-Summer 2023 Collection, consumers can trace each product’s origins. A portion of this collection will also be available online from Rossignol’s web shop.

Over the next few years, Rossignol intends to continue to increase the number of traceable products we sell, until we reach 100 percent in 2025. A second analysis phase has just begun in our Fall-Winter 2023-2024 Collection.

After a strong rebound in the 2021-2022 financial year (€313 million in revenue), the Rossignol Group recorded very strong growth in its activities for the 2022-2023 financial year, up 28%, with €401 million in revenue (as of March 31^st, 2023). Founded 116 years ago in the French Alps, and now a global reference in winter and mountain sports, the Group is driven by its product expertise, competitive success, the successful diversification of its offer and its commitment to sustainable development. By 2026, Rossignol plans to generate close to 30% of its business through its clothing and footwear offer and to continue to open up all-seasons and mountain multi-activity. The Group also aims to develop one third of its ski ranges within a circular economy approach by 2028.

Record year: The Rossignol Group reveals very good results for 2022-2023

The strong market recovery observed during the winter of 2021-2022 continued in the 2022–2023 season. Despite sometimes variable snow conditions throughout different periods and geographic areas, the Rossignol Group took full advantage of the high traffic in ski resorts and the increasing appeal of the mountains and their benefits.

Consequently, 2022-2023 is a record year. The Rossignol Group is growing strongly across all markets (+ 36% in France, +39% in Europe, +16 % in North America and +10% in Asia) and distribution channels, and developing well in winter sports equipment and the apparel/footwear category.

This market dynamic comes within the promising context of an outstanding Racing season, with a total of 146 podiums and 40 victories in the World Cup across all disciplines, and an excellent World Championships (Alpine and Nordic) with 21 medals including 9 gold medals.

While Racing and innovation remain at the heart of the Rossignol Group’s DNA, sustainable development now plays a central role, with a comprehensive approach to managing the life cycle of its products, from eco-design to new recycling solutions. This winter, the Rossignol Group unveiled two major innovations with the Rossignol Essential ski, delivering extremely high recyclability potential (at 77%, 10 times that of a traditional ski), and the Dynastar Hybrid Core 2.0, a new manufacturing process resulting in a significant decrease in all environmental indicators measured as part of a product life-cycle analysis.

Ascension 2026: a push towards a more responsible economic model

In November 2022, the Rossignol Group announced its intention to achieve €500 million in revenue in 2026, while deploying its environmental and social commitments through its Ascension 2026 strategic plan. The main thrust of this plan is to reconcile qualitative growth, industrial performance and a more sustainable approach.

To support this new ambition, the Group has announced a global investment envelope of €50 million by 2026, including €27 million of industrial investments, €15 million of which is linked to its RESPECT environmental progress programme (40% of these investments have already been initiated: for example, to install solar panels in the Artés plant in Spain, to optimise industrial processes to reduce waste production, and for energy transition investments on the Sallanches manufacturing site from 2024).

In Fall 2022, the Rossignol Group announced its wish to accelerate its production commitment to a circular economy that is more responsible for the company and its environment, and to support the transformation of its manufacturing base. The key focuses include reinforcing the Group’s French industrial roots by investing in the Sallanches site in Haute-Savoie, with the aim of making this plant the world’s leading factory for eco-designed and recyclable skis and a centre of expertise for repair and second life.

The Rossignol Group has also recently taken another major step in its sustainable development policy by investing in its own poplar plantation in Spain in 2023. The Group’s objective is to put in place a full cycle, in a short-circuit, circular approach, from planting to production and up to the stage of recovering materials at product end-of-life and recycling. This plantation will therefore directly supply the two ski factories, in Artés (Spain) and Sallanches (France), with the ultimate goal of covering 50% of its annual requirement for wood. This operation is part of a 15-year cycle to plant a forest of more than 50,000 trees on a currently treeless site, and to capture a total of 14,000 tonnes of CO2.

Rossignol has also collaborated with Fairly Made to improve the traceability of its textile products, and to better understand their footprint: transparency as to their sourcing, manufacturing and environmental impacts, and to find areas for improvement for our future products. Rossignol’s Spring-Summer 2023 collection will feature a QR Code on labels that consumers can scan to find this information.

The Rossignol Group is therefore continuing its efforts to achieve its objectives in the coming years: from reducing its waste (-40% by 2025) to reducing its carbon footprint (-30% by 2030), and including a more responsible ski offer, an enhanced four-season Clothing & Footwear offer, and the deployment of its omnichannel strategy. All the indicators are positive for the Group’s accelerated transition and its foothold in the mountains all year round.

Vincent Wauters, CEO of the Rossignol Group, says: “I am extremely proud of our teams’ outstanding work over the past two years, which has led to a solid financial and commercial strengthening of the Rossignol Group. Thanks to their collective talent and their unwavering commitment, we have achieved a record year and a spectacular rebound in only 24 months. We have therefore passed the milestone of €400 million in revenue, in advance of our Ascension 2026 Strategic Plan. With a strong increase in revenue and margin since 2021. This will therefore be a record year, far exceeding our best performances pre-Covid. We are building on these collective performances and the return to a positive net result to pursue our deployment and our investments for the future with confidence and peace of mind.”

Quatre ans après le lancement de sa technologie phare Hybrid Core, mixant la performance du bois avec la légèreté et le toucher de neige feutré du PU, Dynastar présente aujourd’hui l’Hybrid Core 2.0, résultat d’une démarche humble mais déterminée vers l’écoconception.

L’objectif ? Construire des skis moins impactants pour l’environnement, tout en continuant d’améliorer la skiabilité de référence qui a forgé la légende de la marque, mêlant agilité, légèreté et puissance.

Four years after the launch of its flagship Hybrid Core technology, blending the performance of wood with the lightness and smooth snow feel of PU, Dynastar is now presenting the Hybrid Core 2.0, the result of a modest but determined eco-design approach.

The goal? To design skis with a reduced environmental impact while continuing to improve the benchmark skiability that has forged the brand’s reputation with a combination of agility, lightness and power.

(suite…)

Now available in limited quantities, the sustainably designed Essential ski named one of the 100 greatest innovations of 2022

Rossignol, the 115-year-old legacy brand and a leader in ski industry innovation, aims to upend industry standards once more with the launch of the world’s most recyclable ski, the Essential.

Now available for purchase in limited quantities on Rossignol.com, the Essential has been named one of the 100 greatest innovations of 2022 by Popular Science. One of the leading media publications covering developments in technology and innovation today, Popular Science honored the brand’s new Essential ski with a “Best of What’s New” award for 2022.

“The Best of What’s New Awards are our way of celebrating the most exciting and ground-breaking innovations of the year. These awards highlight the revolutionary inventions that are helping to improve our daily lives, our society, and our planet,” says Popular Science Technology Editor Rob Verger. “From the future of air travel to revolutionary skin care products, and from sustainable outdoors equipment to game-changing gadgets, this year’s list is a thrilling mix that we’re proud to call the Best of What’s New.”

The Essential is constructed with as few materials as possible focusing on recycled, natural certified, and bio-sourced materials to reduce environmental impact and maximize recyclability. Unlike conventional ski constructions with an average recyclability rate of just 7%, the Essential dramatically moves the needle forward in terms of sustainable ski development with a 77% recyclability rate. All the while maintaining the performance and durability traits Rossignol consumers have come to expect.

“The launch of Essential reflects our team’s collaborative approach and commitment toward more sustainable product development, eco-conscious design, product life-cycle management, and recycling solutions,” said Nick Castagnoli, Brand Marketing Director, Rossignol Group North America. “It’s very meaningful to have this work recognized by a publication like Popular Science.”

Rossignol Group’s wide-reaching CSR initiative, the RESPECT program, outlines the brand’s broader sustainability goals, also a major component of the Group’s Ascension 2026 strategic plan. Announced last month, the plan outlines the Group’s plan to invest $50 million over the next three years to achieve new levels of sustainability and revenue growth. The Rossignol Group will continue to place its environmental and social commitments at the heart of all its major strategic initiatives, and the Essential Ski is just the beginning.

For decades, the Rossignol Group’s teams have been guided by the desire to offer, through their brands, products of the highest quality to skiers of all backgrounds and disciplines.

This year again, the skis and ski boots of the Rossignol, Dynastar and Lange brands have received several awards from Europe to North America:

(suite…)

Rossignol’s strategic plan sets sights on $500 million in revenue by 2026 aligned with continuing push into four-season mountain products.

Targeting both significant revenue growth and category leadership in sustainable ski and outdoor products, the Rossignol Group this month unveiled a new strategic plan — called Ascension 2026 — that commits to investing $50 million between now and 2026 to achieve its goals.

The Ascension 2026 plan is centered around four pillars:

(suite…)

For every new pair of skis sold the brand will donate a refurbished ski to charitable organizations

Kicking off the “giving season” and in keeping with Rossignol’s many recent social and environmental commitments, the 115-year-old legacy brand is eager to announce its new One-for-One giveback program for the 2022-23 winter season.

(suite…)

Seeking to offer mountain sports enthusiasts an enhanced multi-brand customer experience, the Rossignol Group has announced the opening of the “START GATE” stores in Bex and Bromont, marking a new step in its multi-season and multi-activity development strategy.

(suite…)

Encourages further industry collaboration to meet the challenges of creating a circular economy throughout the ski industry

To initiate a more collective industry movement, the Rossignol Group today shared its plans for its new recyclable ski with all stakeholders in the mountain / winter sport segment. The aim is to actively contribute to the launch or development of exchangeable technical solutions that will further facilitate the recyclability of products throughout global mountain and winter sport markets.

By 2028, the Rossignol Group expects that one-third of its ski ranges will be part of a circular economy approach.

(suite…)