FE acquired the entire chain’s parent, Free Time Management Group, from Fanatics Italy.
Fútbol Emotion (FE) has just tripled its store count in Italy, announcing on LinkedIn that it has acquired The Pitch Football Store. The announcement credits FE’s “strategic partners” – Adidas, Nike and Puma – with supporting this expansion.
FE has in fact acquired the entirety of the chain’s parent, Free Time Management Group, from Fanatics Italy, as FinanceCommunity.it reports. Free Time was the property a firm called EPI until April 2003, when Fanatics acquired EPI (from a consortium in which the PE firm Quadrivio Group held a majority stake) and changed its name to Fanatics Italy.
According to Sportico, EPI was at the time generating more than $50 million in annual sales and had partnerships with many of Italy’s biggest football clubs – AC Milan, Juventus, Inter Milan, Lazio, Atalanta – as well as the national team.
Free Time was founded in 1985 in Barzago, where it still keeps an 8,000-sqm warehouse. For 15 years it did business as Calcioshop.it. The Pitch’s current revenue split between on- and offline sales remains undisclosed, but its e-commerce appears to be significant.
FE – itself owned by Sports Emotion, of Zaragosa, Spain – already operates two stores in Italy, both in and around Milan: one in the center of town, one on the outskirts (Rozzano). The Pitch’s four stores are themselves in and around Milan, the eccentric ones being in Barzago and Bergamo. FE has two other foreign stores, both in Portugal (Lisbon and Oporto). Its store count in Spain is 20.
As we reported in November, Sports Emotion generated sales of €82.35 million in full-year 2023.
