Décathlon is going through a major development in Germany, justifying a dedicated distribution center for the country. Located in Schwetzingen, not too far from the French border, the first module of the €40 million warehouse is set to go on stream with a surface of 30,000 square meters one year from now.
Décathlon already has 14 stores in the country, and three more units are in the pipeline for a startup later this year. One of them will be a 2,400-square-meter store scheduled to open in mid-2012 at Dessau. It will be the first one in the former East Germany. The other two will be a 3,300m² store in Hagen and a 4,000m² unit in the Rathausgalerie of Essen, which will take the place of a Saturn electronics store.
With these stores, Décathlon is going to reach a total retail surface of about 63,600 square meters in Germany, the company says. SAZ, a German magazine that has been following the French retailer's moves in Germany closely, also reports on potential new openings for Décathlon in the areas of Koblenz, Augsburg and Mönchenblach, but a company spokesman declined to confirm this.
