Rodale’s Scuba Diving

An Interview with Bob Leite

Bob Leite, Sales and Marketing Manager for Cressi-sub USA, got involved in the diving industry in 1968 as a design engineer for a little company called U.S. Divers. A few years later he moved on to a division of AMF called Swimaster which focused on diving equipment, After ten years there, initially as an engineer. then as a salesman, he moved back to U.S. Divers to work in sales and marketing and eventually as their International Sales Manager where he was responsible for international distribution, In 1995, Leite decided to start his own business manufacturing and distributing equipment primarily into the Asian markets. Three years later, Cressi-sub was looking for someone with just that international experience to expand their export distribution in the U.S. Rodale's Scuba Diving Extra caught up with Leite at his office in CaJifomia.

RSD Extra: Cressi-sub has really come on to the U.S. scene in a bigger way in the last few years. Give us some background and history about the company.

Bob: Cressi-sub has been in the business since 1946 based in Genoa, Italy. and is one of the oldest diving companies in the world. They've been manufacturing rubber goods since the beginning and have produced millions of masks, fins, and snorkels over the last 50 years. They manufacture a full product line including regulators, buoyancy compensators and gauges.

The emphasis has always been European distribution, where they've been a market leader for years. Cressi-sub viewed the U.S. as a market they needed to focus on in terms of export distribution. Their success has been somewhat limited. Initially, distribution was from Miami, Florida, and about 12 years ago, they relocated to Closter, New Jersey, where they're based now. They felt that in order to be successful. they needed to reorganize sales and distribution from the U.S, and use an American with knowledge of and experience in the North American and Caribbean markets and that's what started our discussions

RSD Extra: Cressi-sub is rightfully proud of several world records set by athletes using your equipment.  Tell us about some recent successes.

Bob: We've always been a company that's emphasized high-quality equipment for the serious diver. We've been a factor in a number of world records in snorkeling, free diving, and competitive free diving.  Deborah Andollo and Umberto Pelizzari, both free diving world record holders, are on the Cressisub staff. By the way, Umberto is currently involved in an exciting IMAX film.

RSD Extra: As a worldwide distributor, do you see equipment trends? Does the U.S. market differ considerably from the Euro-andAsian market?

Bob: The markets can be significantly different. In the American market, our customers tend to be larger than Asian customers and therefore require different products such as fins and masks. The American market is rather conservative in terms of deep diving, but decompression diving is very common at the higher diving level in Europe. The use of dive computers is a basic requirement there rather than an upgrade from a depth gauge. The American market is more conservative in their selection of colors than both Asia and Europe. The American customer generally does not like combining a variety of colors, whereas that's very popular in Asia and Europe. That was a learning process we had to go through in the U.S.  We had to come up with some different color options for the American market and that's made a significant difference in our sales.  Fashion is equally important to the U.S. market.  When you get in to specific products, America is the leader in BC design.  The European market tends to follow the American market and what becomes successful here eventually becomes popular in the European market, so our immediate market requirements today might be slightly different in Europe or we might need to adjust our product to give the American consumer what they're looking for.

RSD Extra: Are there products that tend to dominate in one market or the other?

Bob: Europe has a larger audience for free diving and spear fishing. We offer pneumatic spear guns and arbolette type guns which are very popular in Europe.  Spear fishing is becoming more popular again in the United States. We sell a lot of equipment related to free diving and spear fishing.  For example, we have a very well established, popular product called the Gara fin which has a very long blade and is used quite extensively by free divers and competitive free divers and even many scuba divers.

RSD Extra: How is the Internet affecting equipment distribution and sales, and does Cressi-sub see it as a future sales channel?

Bob:  Internet sales are just now hitting the diving industry and we're certainly keeping a close eye on them. We have a policy at Cressi-sub for the U.S. that requires all sales of our products to take place only on an 1-store basis, so we're not allowing dealers to offer our products for sale on the internet. But Internet sales are not going away. We have to continually look at what's best for the consumer and what's best for the retailer. Our goal is to offer the best service possible to the consumer, but we certainly need to keep the retailers needs in mind. One of the strengths of Cressi-sub is that we believe we are receptive to new ideas and the needs of both our dealers and consumers. As a manufacturer, we need to offer not only the highest quality, best-priced, state-of-the-art equipment, but we also need to offer dealers incredible service. Supporting the needs of our dealers is a very high priority to Cressi-sub.We go out of our way to support them not only technically but also with fast shipping and good pricing.

RSD Extra: What do you think the future will bring in terms of the scuba diving experience and scuba gear?

Bob:  We've introduced over 20 new products in the last two years.  Although not all of these products are considered revolutionary, they've all been very important in completing our product range. We view ourselves as a leader in product development.  We've just come out with a new product that we call "Big Eyes".  It's a revolutionary patented diving mask that simply works better than any other mask out there.  Materials are also a big factor in this business and a lot of Cressi-sub's success has been in the innovation and use of new materials. The thermoplastic materials that are used now in our product line allow us to create products that perform better and look better. I also think we'll see BC's becoming more technical but easier to use and more comfortable. Thermal protection and wetsuit materials will eventually change to provide better buoyancy characteristics that will help minimize how much weight we need to wear.  To succeed in this very competitive marketplace, manufacturers must constantly offer new and exciting products backed by customer service.