Mattias Ankarberg appointed new president and CEO of Thule Group

Thule Group’s board of directors has appointed Mattias Ankarberg as the new president and CEO of the company. To secure a seamless handover, Magnus Welander will remain in his role until Mattias Ankarberg has finished his current role.

Making the announcement, Hans Eckerström, chair of the board, says: “The board is very pleased to be able to present Mattias Ankarberg as the new president and CEO of Thule Group as part of the long-term succession planning.”

“Mattias will be a great addition and a great force for Thule as it is now time to lift the company to the next level and continue building the organization with talented people. The company is about to launch 2 new product categories that were presented at the capital markets day in 2022, and the board believes that in connection with the ongoing commercial investments, the time is now right for a new leadership.”

“In his previous roles, Mattias has proven himself as a successful leader with extensive experience in consumer goods, branding and international markets. I am happy to welcome Mattias as the new president and CEO and would like to thank Magnus for his long and successful leadership of Thule.”

Mattias Ankarberg comments: “I feel honoured and very excited, and I look forward to taking Thule to the next level. Thule has fantastic products, an ambitious sustainability agenda and many talented employees.”

“Thule also has a strong brand with great potential to grow further with the help of continued investments in product development, opening up new product categories and by modernizing sales and marketing channels.”

Ankarberg has over 20 years of experience in consumer goods, from McKinsey & Company (located in Sweden and the USA), H&M (several senior positions, most recently as Global Sales and Marketing Manager) and now as CEO of Byggmax Group (publ). Mattias has been a member of the board of the Thule Group since 2018. He will take over as President and CEO of Thule no later than August 9, 2023.

Magnus Welander says: “I have had a 17-year, exciting and successful journey with Thule and am proud of everything we have achieved together. The board has now decided that it is time to hand over the baton. As always, I want the best for my colleagues, the company and the investors and will with full energy secure that Mattias gets off to the best possible start, when he takes over to lead the company towards the fantastic future that I am convinced Thule has.”

In October of 2022 Thule issued a second mid-quarter trading update to its investor base, clarifying some detail on inventory build up in the bike sector and warning of a large dive in expected income.

A sharp decline in its onward sales is attributed to existing high inventory levels in the supply chain and a softening of consumer demand. As a result the CEO Magnus Weylander said that the “temporary slowdown” versus a record 2021 will affect near term results.