Ogden won out.
Easily, said Mike Dowse, president and general manager of the division, citing the city's proximity to an international airport, the fabulous snow in the Wasatch Mountains and Mayor Matthew Godfrey's steadily expanding goal of making Ogden the "hub" of the ski industry.
A state incentive worth almost $8 million didn't hurt, either.
"We were driven by the cultural fit. . . . I loved the mayor's attitude," Dowse said Monday in the formal announcement that Amer Sports, the world's largest sports equipment company, will make Ogden the home of the new combined U.S. headquarters for its Salomon, Atomic and Suunto brands. Together, they account for roughly $130 million of the $1.6 billion in net sales totaled by Amer Sport, whose biggest division is Wilson sporting goods.
"We believe Ogden will be the next Boulder of the U.S.," he added, referring to the Colorado city renowned since the 1960s for its appeal to outdoor recreationists. "We wanted to be at the front edge of that vision."
Godfrey said the impending arrival of those big-time winter-sports brands will give additional impetus to that ambition. Already, Ogden has become home to units of seven other skiing-related companies - Descente, Scott USA, Rossignol, Goode, Kahuna, Nidecker and Snowsports Interactive. And six months from now, downtown Ogden will have a High Adventure Recreation Center complete with an indoor wind tunnel for sky diving as well as surfing and climbing facilities.
"We are committed to making Ogden the country's high-adventure recreation capital," the mayor said.
Amer Winter & Outdoor U.S., the division's official name, will invest an estimated $3 million in a downtown Ogden headquarters and bring about 230 high-paying jobs to Ogden, starting next summer. The average annual wage will be $67,983, which is 316 percent of the Weber County median.
Dowse said most employees will be senior sales and marketing executives, the unit's finance team and "product liaisons" who interact with both U.S. consumers and the company's European manufacturers. Eighty percent of Amer Sports winter products are, and will continue to be, made in Europe.
He expects 30 percent to 40 percent of those employees to relocate from their existing hubs: Atomic Ski USA Inc. is based in Amherst, N.H.; Suunto USA Inc. is in Carlsbad, Calif; and Salomon North America's headquarters has been in Portland, Ore. The remaining positions will be new hires, presumably including numerous Utahns.
Those economic statistics persuaded the Governor's Office of Economic Development board, in a special meeting Monday, to approve the $7,935,000 post-performance incentive package - one of the larger awards in the board's history (earlier this year, it designated $15 million in incentives for IM Flash Technologies, a co-operative effort by Micron Technology Inc. and Intel Corp.).
The incentive will include a $2.5 million grant from the state's Industrial Assistance Fund and a $5.4 million tax rebate from new state tax revenue generated by the company over a 10-year period.
Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert said the incentive is a good investment, considering the Amer division is expected to generate $26.5 million in new state revenue during that period, along with $133 million in salaries.
"The importance of this move can't be overstated. This is not just a relocation but a headquarters being established here," he said, adding "Utah is doing everything it can to be a focal point of outdoor recreation" while Ogden is "uniquely suited to this kind of operation."
mikeg@sltrib.com
Details of the deal
* COMING TO OGDEN: Amer Winter & Outdoor U.S.
* BRAND NAMES: Salomon, Atomic, Suunto
* JOBS: About 230, paying an average of $68,000
* STATE INCENTIVE: $8 million combination of grant, post-performance tax rebate
* ESTIMATED RETURN: $26.5 million in new tax revenues
