Sports Insight

Q4 - December 2018

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sportsinsightmag.com T here's a reason Kittery Trading Post, the iconic everything-for-the-out- doors store located conve- niently right off our Route 95 on the New Hampshire-Maine bor- der — no one heading up north from Massachusetts skips stopping in for gear — has been an industry standard for 80 years. Actually, there are 80 reasons for its success. And we found them, thanks to an internal contest prompted by this story and coordinated by Kittery's senior VP Dave Labbe. The executive, who is also chairman of the National Sporting Goods Association, asked the company's 370 employees to help explain its success in a crowded, hyper- competitive retail market. Labbe has seen the drastic changes in outdoor retailing in the past three decades and is particularly proud that Kittery Trading Post has stuck to its roots — doing what it does best, which is providing everything for the outdoors in a unique, family- and customer- friendly environment. KTP has survived and thrived by adapting to the changing retail environment. "In my 32 years in the outdoor retail industry, besides the consolidations of both retailers and manufacturers, bank- ruptcies and the disappearance of the independent retailer, the real change to the industry is competition from manu- facturers selling direct to consumers," Labbe says. "Online sales by companies without a brick-and-mortar retail format Outdoor retailer Kittery Trading Post has been successful for eight decades. By Michael Jacobsen 30 • Sports Insight ~ December 2018 80 Years 80 Reasons RETAIL PROFILE

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