Juan-Luis Betancourt has become Décathlon’s new country manager in the USA, a country where the world’s second-largest sporting goods retailer is still struggling. Sales at its four remaining U.S. stores have been rising sharply in recent months, following the certification of many of its private label products, but while consumers are responding well to Décathlon’s competitive offerings, the certification process is still going on, and the new management is expected to consolidate the business further before contemplating any major new expansion.
The former MVP chain, which comprised 20 stores when Décathlon bought it six years ago, was losing a lot of money after the takeover. Mathieu Leclercq, son of the French group’s founder, Michel Leclercq, ran the U.S. chain at the start, renaming it as Décathlon. He left in 2003 to take care of the group’s diversification and was replaced by Philippe Uzan, a company veteran who has now gone back to the head office in France to be assigned to a still undisclosed new task.
Betancourt, a U.S. native in his mid-thirties who worked previously for Reebok and Puma, was brought into the company nearly two years ago to handle various responsibilities, mostly in the USA, and to become familiar with the group’s methods and processes. An American of Cuban descent, he has no relation to the French Betancourt family that is the major shareholder in L’Oréal.
Meanwhile, acting through an investment fund called Oxynvest, Décathlon’s founder, Michel Leclercq, has taken over a French publishing company, Sofimav, that puts out five hiking, sailing and scuba diving magazines. He had previously bought another company that manages three climbing halls.
