Sports retail group Sport 2000 International looks back on a very successful year, closing FY22 with gross sales of €6.5 billion. With the goal of becoming “an agile, future-oriented premium retail service organization,” the company is initiating a transformation and growing even closer together as an international sports retail network.
“The world around us is developing rapidly,” said Margit Gosau, Managing Director of Sport 2000 International and Sport 2000 GmbH, underlining the importance of transformation processes. “As an international brand in the brick-and-mortar sports retail industry, it is our task to develop new concepts and strategies to remain competitive in the future.” She believes the main reasons for this are that consumers are more demanding than ever and scrutinizing their purchasing decisions more critically than in the past. Sustainability and social and ethical responsibility are also decisive purchasing factors. Added to this are technical innovations such as AI and megatrends, which are constantly bringing new products to market and thus shaping the competitive environment.
Above all, transformation means saying goodbye to old patterns, being courageous and leaving the comfort zone. “By stepping out of our comfort zone, we can realize our full potential and take a strong position as One Sport 2000 in all countries,” Gosau believes. “Our mission is to grow even closer together as an international sports retail group and become an agile, future-oriented premium retail service organization.”
With the introduction of the global brand claim “Home of Experts,” the associated launch of the international brand campaign “Welcome Home,” and the introduction of the new Witeblaze brand, Sport 2000 International has taken decisive steps to refine its positioning in 2022.
Sales growth increased
Sport 2000 International achieved gross retail sales of €6.5 billion across all categories and segments in the fiscal year ended. This represents a 15.5 percent increase over 2021 and a 36.5 percent increase over 2019 pre-crisis levels, with more than 200 million people worldwide outfitted in Sport 2000 stores in 2022, according to the group’s latest report. In total, the group comprised some 2,300 retailers with around 3,600 stores in 25 countries as of the end of 2022. This does not yet include the group’s country-specific online stores, which offer additional shopping experiences.
Stronger collaboration, but withdrawal from Sweden and Finland
For Gosau, the focus of the long-term strategy is clearly on the even stronger networking of Sport 2000 on an international level. With its “Center of Excellence” approach, the sports retail group is driving know-how exchange and cross-border collaboration, sharing expertise within the international group and jointly adopting strategic approaches. Due to their different strategic agendas for the future, Sport 2000 International and SGN Sports will go their separate ways by the end of 2023. As a result of this decision, Sport 2000 will no longer be operating in Sweden and Finland. “Our goal is not to oversaturate the map with national representations but to focus on high-quality and strategically aligned cooperation partners that best fit [our] mission,” Gosau said.
Supervisory Board confirmed
During this year’s General Assembly, Dominik Solleder, Managing Director of Sport 2000 GmbH, was elected as a new member of the Supervisory Board of Sport 2000 International. Dr. Holger Schwarting, member of the Management Board of Sport 2000 Austria, was again confirmed as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Sport 2000 International. The Supervisory Board now comprises Chairman Schwarting, Austria, Vice Chairman Matthias Grevener, Germany, Marius Rovers, Netherlands, Jean-Louis Parent, France, Roland Felder, Switzerland, and Solleder, Germany.
