The CEO of Base Detall Sport, Miquel Calzada, has told CMDsport that the Spanish buying group is ready to join forces with Intersport Spain or, indeed, any other party as long as it serves a common purpose. Base Detall Sport will not, however, be making the first move. “We, for our part, have no imperative need for collaborations, but it’s true that it’s always good to join forces.”
Calzada was responding to the words of sources within Intersport Spain’s network, as reported by CMD on June 26. Base and Intersport held fruitless negotiations in 2007, 2010 and 2014. “The scenario that existed at the time of those negotiations,” the sources said, “have changed substantially, and at the present state of the sector it would perhaps be good to take them up again. It would be good for both parties.”
CMD explains that the objectives back then were to raise purchasing volumes, obtain better terms with suppliers, achieve broader market coverage, and become more competitive against the vertical players in Spanish sports retail.
Intersport Spain, according to CMD’s sources, is in a “very delicate” position. One of its members, Esports Quinze, was obliged in April to close all six of its stores – in Barcelona, Gavá, Castelldefels, Sant Boi de Llobregat, Tarragona and Reus. According to the sources’ account, the reason was an estrangement from the buying group’s management, which, in recent years, had begun to treat the owners as “mere subordinates.”
In any case, the store closures occurred after the next orders had gone in. For the owners to meet their obligations with suppliers, then, they had to redistribute the merchandise to stores managed by Intersport Retail One and others. Moreover, the next two months, May and June, are traditionally slow. Hence the delicacy of the situation, but, as the sources said, “what buying group does not find itself in a difficult situation these days?”
As for Base’s situation, sales were down by about 4.5 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2024, according to Calzada. Margins narrowed, too, but the group’s economic situation, like that of most of the stores in its network, is positive. “Our horizon,” Calzada said, “doesn’t look bad.”
