Decathlon said it will reinvest in further discounts in its home market of France this year after its price cutting strategy there helped it boost its second highest sales gains in a decade.

The French sporting goods retailer reported global sales reached €8.20 billion ($10.9 bn) excluding taxes in 2014, up 10.6 percent compared with 2013, when they rose 6.01 percent. Comparable store sales at the flagship Decathlon banner grew 6.0 percent, compared with a 1.4 percent gain in 2013.

The topline growth, which was the highest since at least 2010, was aided by the opening of 103 new retail stores, compared with the opening of 82 in 2013. Decathlon ended the year with 884 stores in 21 countries, including its first store in Croatia. The company, which changed its name from Oxylane to Decathlon last year, derived 60.5 percent of its sales from outside of France during the year.

Sharper pricing to continue in France
At Decathlon France, where the company ended the year with 288 stores, net sales increased 4.33 percent – the second highest growth rate in a decade. Same-store sales grew 3.52 percent and transactions increased 6.81 percent compared with 2013.

Three new stores, the expansion of existing stores and a rollout of in-store fulfillment of online orders to all stores contributed to the growth. Still, Decathlon emphasized the gains in its home market validated a strategic shift to more aggressive pricing. The company said it dropped prices on 769 items at its stores in France by at least 10 percent during the year and vowed to reinvest in further discounts in 2015 “to make sports accessible to more people.”

The company said its focus on technical products, low prices and building customer relationships is resonating with customers, who rewarded the company with high marks in a customer loyalty study by ConsumerLab. Decathlon.fr was ranked the 15th most visited e-commerce sites by the market research firm FEVAD. The retailer’s plans to drive more traffic to the site this year by installing touch screens in all its French stores that customers can use to browse its complete catalog.

Decathlon end the year with 128 stores in Spain, 100 in Italy, 23 in Germany and 17 in the United Kingdom.
 
 
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