Décathlon's brand manager, Dominique Thomas, is moving to Brazil to develop the banner in the country and to find new sources of local production for its private label products. His position at Décathlon is being taken over by François De Witte, another veteran of the big French retail group. De Witte ran Décathlon for a while in Brazil and then helped Thomas in the development of the banner in Northern Europe and Asia. Thomas has been largely responsible for Décathlon's strong international development in the last few years. The banner has only 11 stores in Brazil for the moment, all in the area of São Paulo, but local insiders have heard a rumor that Décathlon is aiming for a network of 20 stores across the country. We are in the final stage of completing a major market research study on Brazil.

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