The relevant authorities have approved the terms for the planned transfer of the shares in the Intersport Austria cooperative from Intersport Germany to the retail members of the Austrian buying group. Technically, the shares will be sold to a newly founded company, Premiumsport Service, based at Intersport Austria’s headquarters in Wels and led by two Intersport members, Harald Tscherne and Roman Winninger. Behind Premiumsport Service are they and the heads of three other large Austrian Intersport retailers: Erhard Fischer, Reinhard Klier and Bernhard Pilz. Intersport Germany had taken over Intersport Austria’s cooperative shares in 2013 after the latter ran into financial difficulties, primarily due to the loss of its largest member, Sport Eybl, which was then taken over by Sports Direct. In recent years, Intersport Austria has seen a positive development, growing and expanding again. Despite the departure two years ago of another big member, Bründl Sports, it now has 358 stores in Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. Austria is by far the largest market with 276 locations.
