Sport 2000 Austria looks back on a rather successful calendar year 2021, considering the circumstances, growing for the second year in a row during the pandemic. The turnover figures for 2021 were better than expected, and according to the buying group’s CEO, Holger Schwarting, the positive development should continue in 2022.
The sales of the whole group and its 601 affiliated stores - i.e. those in Austria as well as in the licensed markets of the Czech Republic and Slovakia - grew by 11 percent to €706 million. In the home market, the affiliated retail members increased their sales by 8.9 percent to €642 million at their 402 outlets in the country.
Sport 2000’s growth was mainly due to the affiliation of new members, high demand for outdoor sporting goods and bicycles, and increases in the online business by big members such as Geomix and Gigasport. While two new retail members joined the group in Austria, significantly higher membership growth occurred in licensed markets, where one of the three new additions is A3 Sport, a chain with about 70 stores.
Sport 2000 is still focused on the brick-and-mortar business in the region, but online is on the rise: In Austria, the group’s growth is mainly attributable to the expanding online business, which currently represents 15 percent of the members’ turnover, or about half the rate in the overall Austrian sports retail market.
Government subsidies have been very helpful in overcoming the pandemic, but depending on the region and the assortment, the business was more or less affected. As the fourth lockdown in Austria ended just before Christmas, sports retailers in tourism destinations were hit less hard, supported by good snow conditions even in the valleys, fueling sales of cross-country skis and snowshoes, besides the ongoing ski touring boom. Ski rentals have suffered, due evidently to fewer foreign tourists, but ski sales have been stable. Overall, members’ results in the winter season were lower than those in the same period in 2019/20, but higher than those in 2020/21.
For January, Sport 2000 expects a decline of 50 percent as compared to 2020. Future scenarios for the spring are very much depending on the development of the pandemic and the travel restrictions. Tourists account for 44 percent of total sales in the Austrian sports retail sector, but the Austrian government is letting in only vaccinated people.
