In a recent interview, BSN Sports President and COO Terry Babilla shared that the team sports retailer ended 2022 with $1.5 billion in annual sales, with an ongoing digital transformation expected to fuel growth in the years ahead.
“We’ve really been able to scale this business by out-servicing everybody else, just like Amazon was able to do, and that’s what I want to become,” Babilla told D CEO, a monthly business magazine serving the Dallas-Fort Worth, TX region. “I want to be the Amazon of team sales.”
Varsity Brands owns BSN Sports, which is headquartered in Dallas, TX.
Babilla said that when he started working at BSN Sports in 2003, the business was on the verge of bankruptcy, but a four-part strategy focused on reducing debt, expanding sales, reducing expenses, and scaling operations stabilized the company. Babilla extensively interviewed the company’s staff at the time to build a culture of recognition, appreciation and internal support while repairing relationships with the company’s vendors.
Since 2003, BSN has acquired over 100 team dealers across the U.S. In 2022, the company celebrated its 50th year in business and it has distributed uniforms and equipment to more than 151,000 youth, club, high school, and college teams.
BSN merged with Herrf Jones in 2013 to form Varsity Brands, including Varsity Spirit. In 2018, Varsity Spirit was sold to Bain Capital for around $2.5 billion.
BSN Sports recently launched two new verticals, B2B2C and a private label to provide new growth opportunities over the next five years.
“It’s a different customer today,” Babilla told the business publication. “We’re reinventing BSN right now. We’re in a digital transformation and are investing a lot of time, energy and money into meeting our customers where they want to be met. We don’t want to become the Blockbuster to Netflix. Our current innovations are a big asset to us.”
Photo courtesy BSN Sports
