The Western European sporting goods market recovered in 2014, rising by 3.8 percent in local currencies after declining by 0.9 percent in the previous year, based on our annual, exclusive analysis of the evolution of sports retailing in 15 major countries. In euros, consumption rose by 4.0 percent to €56.1 billion including sales taxes. It seems that brick-and-mortar retailers lost some market share to the brands' growing DTC business, pure e-tailers and non-specialists like Zara or H&M.
The strongest increases in overall consumption were recorded in the U.K., Germany, Spain, Sweden and Norway. The Italian market recovered from a long depression. Only Switzerland went down, as customers preferred to shop in neighboring countries because of the persistent strength of the national currency. The market was nearly flat in Austria and Denmark.
Posted on pages 2 and 3 of this issue along with the sales of the major retailers in each country, our estimates for the market's growth or decline in each country are based on the figures from the NPD online consumer panel published in our last issue and on the estimates of national trade associations and industry observers. As for market size, our figures often differ from those of established sources as we keep trying to use the same definition of the sporting goods market in each country, covering for example golf products or sports bicycles, but not bicycles used for transportation. With this process, we manage to measure per capita consumption in each country, which remains highest in Norway and lowest in Portugal.
Many of the data reported in the chart for the major retailers in each country, including Karstadt or Sports Direct for example, are estimates. They only refer to their sales of sporting goods, including outdoor products and the retail sales generated by the members of buying groups. As all the major retail players in Germany apparently lost market share last year, except for Runners Point, it would seem that pure e-tailers like Zalando and Amazon captured a larger share of the sporting goods market there, and they probably did so in Sweden and other countries as well.
The figures given in the charts for the individual retailers refer only to their sales in a particular country (their global sales will be published by us later this year), and their rate of growth or decline is not calculated on a same-store basis. Across Europe, XXL remained the fastest-growing retailer in Norway as well as Sweden. Double-digit growth was also recorded by Decathlon and Sport 2000 in the Netherlands, by United Brands in Belgium, by the three main retail players in Ireland, by Intersport in the U.K., by Stadium in Finland, by Sportringen in Sweden and by Stadion in Norway.
Decathlon continued to raise its market shares in every country except for Spain, according to the figures that we have been able to collect. Intersport and its national licensees enjoyed good growth in France, Austria and the U.K., but they didn't perform as well in other countries.
Intersport and some other retailers have reported on a positive start of the year in 2015, thanks in part to better snow conditions. General economic conditions have been improving. However, weather patterns were somewhat capricious in the Nordic countries and other parts of Europe in the spring. In the absence of a major international event like the Fifa World Cup last year, it is not yet clear whether the European market will grow at the same rate in 2015. Much will depend on the critical last quarter.
Click her to download the chart (1st part)
Click her to download the chart (2nd part)
