Décathlon is opening its first store in Lebanon through its partnership with Azadea. The new franchised door is located in Beirut's Dbayeh mall. Azadea had also opened the first Décathlon sports store in the Middle East at the end of 2010, at the Mirdif City Center in Dubai. Décathlon has another franchised store in the region, at the Marina Hall in Kuwait City.
Azadea Group Holding is a retail holding company based in Beirut operating in various sectors. It is the regional partner for several other leading brands, among which Zara, Gap, Mango, Promod and Pimkie.
The Oxylane group, of which Décathlon is the leading brand, is continuing its international expansion this year. It opened its first corporate Décathlon store in Taiwan last June, located in Taichung, the third biggest town in the country, including a 4,000 square meters sales area and a 3,000 square meters ground for outdoor sports. Taichung was also chosen for the local office of Décathlon Production, the branch of Oxylane in charge of the design and manufacture of private label products. Also in June, Oxylane inaugurated in Shanghai a 900-square-meter shop for its discount brand, Koodza.
The French sporting goods retail giant has 681 stores, all banners included, around the world. France nonetheless remains the country with the highest number of stores, with 252.
