Intersport International Corp. GmbH, the worlds largest sporting goods retailer, increased its retail sales by 3 percent to €10.2 billion ($13 bn) Euro in 2012.
Important growth drivers were the areas “Soccer” – with the UEFA 2012 in Poland and Ukraine-as well as Running and Fitness. In 2013 retail sales are expected to be comparable with 2012.
Running and Fitness remain trend-setters.
Intersport continued to benefit from the global trend towards fitness and wellbeing. Consequently, Intersports core competencies like Running and Fitness disproportionately contributed to the retail sales increase in 2012.
Other categories like soccer, winter sports and outdoor added positively to the sales results. Soccer driven by the UEFA 2012 in Poland and Ukraine, where Intersport acted as the official sport shop, winter products due to cold weather in January and February as well as in the first half of December and the outdoor category remained stable after several years of substantial growth.
With view to the geographical markets, the strongest retail sales increases were recorded in Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, the UK and Sweden as well as in most countries of Eastern Europe.
Besides enhanced development in its traditional markets, Intersport will continue its expansion into new markets. In August 2013, the first three Intersport shops will be opened in China followed by the first store opening in Morocco in fall. In the first half 2014 the market entry in Belarus will be realized with the opening of the first three stores. At the end of 2012 Intersport had a total of 5419 points of sales.
Integration of The Athletes Foot Shortly prior to Christmas 2012 the acquisition of 100 percent of the US based franchise retail chain The Athletes Foot was concluded. The Athletes Foot sells mainly sports shoes that satisfy both performance and lifestyle customers and consists of stores in 27 countries. For the most part the integration process is nearly completed.
Especially due to the bad weather, but also due to the challenging economic situation in many European countries linked to reduced consumer spending, the first five months of this year have been difficult. Moreover, in 2013 major sports events are absent.