Stefan Wahlén, new Patagonia managing director

By

Sarah Ahssen

Published
Jul 12, 2012

Patagonia, the California outdoor clothing brand, has just announced the appointment of Stefan Wahlén as managing director of Patagonia Europe. The appointment comes nine months following the death of Holger Bismann, who held the post since 2008.

Stefan Wahlén was previously vice president of international development and sales for the brand British men's wear brand Wolsey. Prior to that, he was global sales director from 2005 to 2010 at Peak Performance, also having worked for Nike from 2000 to 2005 as director of sales for northern Europe.

"The company [Patagonia] sees Europe as a key market for growth [...] We will now focus on expanding our retail and we are currently looking for a retail manager for our European network," said Wahlén.

For fiscal year 2011/2012 ended April 30, Patagonia reported sales of 540 million dollars and an increase of 42% of sales in Europe. Patagonia Europe is headquartered in Annecy, France where it has 40 employees.