Sageworks reports that privately held sporting goods stores may be outperforming publicly traded retailers like Dick’s Sporting Goods and Hibbett Sports.
Sales at privately held retailers selling sporting goods, hobby supplies and musical instruments (NAICS 4511) in the 12 months ended Aug. 1 were 10.5 percent higher than the same period a year earlier, and profit margins have been flat, at around 3 percent, according to Sageworks’ industry benchmarking data.
In the 12 months ended Aug. 1, 2012, sales at the sporting goods/hobby/musical supplies stores increased 7.3 percent from the year-earlier period. (While hobby and music stores are included in the data category, sporting goods retailers represent the majority of the financial statements.)
Sales growth in the last two years has also outpaced increases at private clothing stores, which averaged 9.3 percent in the period ended Aug. 1 and 5.7 percent in the year before, according to Sageworks’ financial statement analysis.
“Part of the retailers’ growth is that the economy has certainly been improving, albeit slowly,” said Sageworks Analyst Tim McPeak. “And of course, sporting goods stores also benefit this time of year from sales of gear for popular fall sports, such as football. But the stronger growth among sporting goods stores seems to be more than the economic rising tide lifting all boats or sports gear. I think the sporting goods stores are getting a larger share of back-to-school apparel sales.”.
A 2012 study by cotton-industry trade group Cotton Inc. said young consumers aged 13 to 24 are more likely to shop for athletic apparel at sport specialty retailers than at mass merchants. The same study noted that the robust athletic apparel market was outpacing other apparel retail and faced less pressure to discount prices.
While some of the largest sporting goods chains are publicly traded, the Census Bureau estimates there were more than 57,000 sporting goods, hobby and musical instrument stores with payrolls in 2007, the most recent estimate available.
“I used to think of back to school as notebooks and folders, but that seems to be a fairly small part of it now,” said McPeak, whose own 5-year-old daughter, Sophie, starts kindergarten this month. “Instead, parents and children focus more these days on apparel and electronics.”
“I used to think of back to school as notebooks and folders, but that seems to be a fairly small part of it now,” said McPeak, whose own 5-year-old daughter, Sophie, starts kindergarten this month. “Instead, parents and children focus more these days on apparel and electronics.”
Sageworks possesses a proprietary database of privately held company financial statements aggregated by industry. Each day, approximately 1,000 of these financial statements are collected by Sageworks from accounting firms, banks, and credit unions through a cooperative data model with Sageworks’ clients. The data is segmented and can be queried by 1,400 industry codes, 70 financial metrics, company size, and geographic location.
