Fusalp targets Spanish market with twin store openings in Madrid and Viella

French brand Fusalp, specialising in high-end skiwear, has made Spain one of its strategic markets and is stepping up its retail presence in the country. At the end of September it opened a boutique on Madrid’s Calle Jorge Juan, and on December 4 it will open another in Viella, the capital of the Aran Valley, around 20 minutes from the Baqueira ski resort.

Fusalp had a partner, operating on an affiliation basis, which ran a store on Calle Claudio Coello in Madrid, but that location closed last year. “We wanted to control the brand experience and opened a subsidiary in Spain. Madrid is one of the most dynamic capitals in Europe. Our location in the Salamanca district fits well with the expectations of Spanish customers and also the international clientele, which is very present in the city,” says Pascal Conte-Jodra, CEO of the French firm, in a conversation with FashionNetwork.com. “In this location we are better positioned; the Fusalp customer is a Jorge Juan customer. It’s a street that aligns better with our values: pedestrianised, calm, and it encourages people to linger and enjoy quality time,” he adds.

With Christmas approaching and the ski season just around the corner, Fusalp will add a second boutique in Spain this week. “On Thursday, December 4 we’re opening in Viella, very close to Baqueira, which is a benchmark in European skiing and an incredible destination both in Spain and internationally. The store is located in a traditional Aranese chalet, a typical local stone house, in the main square of the town,” the executive explains.

Beyond these two key openings, the company’s plans for the Spanish market include “making sure its proposition fits well in the country,” according to its CEO, as well as developing its wholesale activity (it currently has eight points of sale) through selected spaces “to build the brand’s visibility and boost the online store.” Spain is currently one of the fastest-growing markets in the company’s digital channel, thanks to the recent translation of its website into Spanish. In business terms, Fusalp estimates that Spain will account for around 2% of its total sales at the close of the 2025–2026 financial year, next May.

“Ambitious, but not aggressive development”.

Beyond its expansion in Spain, Fusalp’s focus is “on reasonable growth, hand in hand with its partners and good product,” according to its CEO. “We believe in ambitious but not aggressive development,” he adds. The company, founded in 1952 in the French Alps, closed the 2024–2025 financial year with a turnover of 64 million euros, and for the current financial year is targeting a rise of around 10% on a like-for-like basis and overall.

The pillars of this growth? Its development in retail and wholesale in strategic markets for its business. Thus, by the end of the 2025/2026 season it will have 61 stores, or 70 in total if pop-up stores in Switzerland, Italy, and France are included; these will be joined by 281 multi-brand points of sale, in addition to its online store. Its retail network has expanded significantly over the past year, with key openings in France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, the UK, and Japan, including both mono-brand boutiques and concessions in high-end department stores such as Harrods, UK and La Rinascente, Italy.

“We are a ‘made in France’ brand, but [are] loved especially in Switzerland and England. We want to consolidate our strength, expand to all fashion capitals. We are also working on our conquest of the West, that is, the US and Canada, and in Asia we have a very small presence; for now we are working on positioning the brand, on placing Fusalp in the most influential spaces in Japan and China,” says the CEO of the brand. The firm’s roadmap includes new openings for 2026, such as one in New York’s SoHo at the beginning of the year, another in London and, perhaps, one in Milan.

By channel, “Fusalp is largely DTC, direct-to-consumer; 85% of sales are generated across retail and e-commerce… Our goal is to consolidate productivity across the retail estate and, at the same time, to grow that estate,” says Conte-Jodra. “The three channels work hand in hand and reinforce one another; online, our goal is to recruit new customers to expand visibility and, in wholesale, to develop new markets and cities,” the CEO points out.

“From 0 to 3,000 metres”.

Beyond distribution, Fusalp’s challenge lies in positioning its product. “We seek to educate the customer so they know that we also have mid-season clothing- technical yet elegant. Fusalp has to dress from the peaks to the avenues, in summer and in winter, from 0 to 3,000 metres. That is our mission as a brand,” says the executive.

“Our positioning is ‘luxury lifestyle’, but we do not communicate quality because it is an intrinsic value of the brand; it is something natural for us. We sell fashion, aesthetics, elegance, a community. We are a leading brand in skiing and we continue to work in that category, of course, but almost half our sales are for the street, ‘ready-to-wear’,” concludes Pascal Conte-Jodra.