Andrew Denton, CEO of the Outdoor Industries Association (OIA), looks at how the last five years have affected the industry and what the future holds.
Andrew has been working in the outdoors since 1984, starting his career in outdoor education and then moving on to a series of senior management and ownership roles in businesses such as Rohan, Mountain Equipment, Sprayway, the Outdoor Sports Company and now climbing walls.
He is best known as the modern founder and co-owner of the international technical brand Mountain Equipment where he worked for 17 years and then sold in 2003.
OIA CEO since August 2011, Andrew is also Secretary General for the Its Great Out There Coalition (IGOT), a ‘not for profit’ initiative launched by The European Outdoor Group, and a member of the ukactive Membership Council.
Andrew thinks the industry has been going through a rocky patch but believes brighter times are ahead in 2025. Statistics back up his reasoning for the last five years of trading.
He said: “It’s been trying time, if you look at a five-year time frame. We’ve got the numbers from the European Outdoor Group OMIS project, the European Outdoor Group state of the trade and Sporting Insights. So, we’ve got a bit of an idea. It’s not just a qualitative flavour, its quantitative data, but mixing those two together gives us an overview.
“What did the last five years look like? If you think back to the end of 2019-2020 and the beginning of the lockdown there was a massive surge in key items of outdoor equipment, particularly bikes, wearables, running shoes, stuff you could do to use to exercise from home.”
However, Andrew noted that while sales were increasing for stores and some sectors the outdoor industry was hit hard for residentials, outdoor education, mountain guides and ski instructors were all closed or unable to work.
Andrew said: “A huge part of our industry suffered really badly through the pandemic. It wasn’t the whole industry, but the equipment side of it, in general rose nearly 18%. There was a massive positive.
“And even for those that did have to close briefly, such as campsites, caravan sites, motorhome sites, they saw an enormous surge in the periods between lockdowns because international travel wasn’t allowed.”
However, the pandemic was still going to pose problems for the industry one it was over.
Andrew said: “Roll forward two years, when stuff started to return to normal, there’s been a kickback.
“It was common sense to understand that this was an exceptional moment. However, and it’s possibly a sign of the times, a lot of the industry has private equity backing them, everyone’s after growth. Boards that were perhaps a little distant from reality, we’re looking at numbers saying great, well, you need to see some growth on this. There was an enormous oversupply in general. The best example is the bike industry.
“At the high point of lockdown bike sales increased. But afterwards there has been a massive glut in stock and we’ve had big redundancies, big people going into receivership.”
But it wasn’t just the bike industry that suffered from overstocking, the outdoor industry was also affected. Andrew added: “There was a lot of stock flowing into the sector.
“You had that surge, then you had a drop in in demand and a glut of sales, which meant there was a reduction and overall suppression of gross margin. Volume of sales was still there, but gross margin was low.
“You then also had a kickback in family camping. I think what then happened, three years in, in 2023, people were saying, well, I’ve done a family holiday with that new tent I bought or that caravan I rented. Post lockdown, now I want to go back to Spain, Greece or the Alps. So, there was big drop off there.
“There was a combination of oversupply and under demand or soft demand. Then then you go into the other big macroeconomic environment that’s hit us.
“There was the Liz Truss effect when she crashed the economy with her mini budget. Interest rates went through the roof. People were coming off fixed interest rates of half or one per cent going back on at five and a half per cent and their take home disposable income went through the floor.
“We’ve seen this in the climbing wall industry that we do some work with. In particular, the South East, the London area where mortgages were most affected, has absolutely seen a drop off there and entrance through the door.
“And then, of course, you had the Russian invasion of Ukraine piling on the back, causing market jitters, which kept inflation high and kept the cost of living high and add into that rising fuel bills
“Then you had a new Labour government, there was a positive uptick to the economy on the way into that for change. However, their comms of what they’re doing has not been particularly good.”
Andrew, though, despite all the uncertainties and hardships that have faced the industry, is cautiously confident about the future.
He concluded: “Basically, for five years, it’s been fairly tough. However, for 2025 there seems to be a flavour of recovery on the horizon. I’ve felt it at International shows, like ISPO, where the feeling was generally reasonably positive.
“The balance sheets are looking healthier, flow is coming through, gross margin is improving. There’s an attitude that some of that volatile, uncertain, ambiguous feelings that we’ve had for the last five years is back to, at least, the new normal of uncertainty, if not where it was in the noughties.
“So, generally looking forward I am moderately positive. I think after a very complex period of five years, we are looking for a slight improvement to normality.”
Andrew is also a firm believer in education for outdoor retail staff. Discover more about his thoughts.
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