Retailers affiliated with Intersport International Corporation (IIC) across Europe raised their sales by around 4 percent overall in the first five months of this year, with variations from one country to the other, and the month of June went well, too. They benefited greatly from the European Football Championships just ended, and the Olympic Games this summer will no doubt give them another push. Since the next autumn cannot possibly be as bad as the last one, Franz Julen, chief executive of IIC, is certain that Intersport's total retail sales will grow by at least 3 to 5 percent this year, raising them again beyond the €10 billion barrier.
Julen predicts that Intersport's sales of football products will reach a new record in 2012, growing to more than €900 million for the full year compared with €850 million in the World Cup year of 2010. The estimate is based on the sales scored by Intersport so far this year, particularly in its role as the “Official Sport Shop” of the Uefa Euro 2012 Championships.
Intersport already had this role four years ago, when the tournament took place in Austria and Switzerland. The related contract was extended last year through 2018 and covers all major Uefa events including the Champions League finals. As the official sponsor and partner of Uefa, Adidas transferred these rights to Intersport as part of their cooperation in football. Among other things, Intersport has the rights to produce licensed products and to manage the exclusive sales at the stadiums and Uefa official fan zones.
Intersport managed 27 stores with more than 350 employees at the stadiums and in the fan zones in Poland. Since it has no licensee in Ukraine, Intersport ran 36 stores with more than 900 employees at the stadiums and in the fan zones in the country through Adidas, which has a big retail presence there. Without providing a specific sales figure, Julen said that these temporary stores sold 46 percent more merchandise in the stadiums than four years ago, with a 14.6 percent increase in the average transaction. Evidently, many local fans were proud to take home some souvenirs of such a special event to which their country was playing host.
The best sellers were T-shirts and scarves carrying the date of the match and the names of the two sparring teams of the day. As at the previous Euro Cup played in Austria and Switzerland, IIC got the blanks produced in Asia at the beginning of this year. They were printed at the last minute in Romania and shipped immediately to the stadiums: After it became clear on Sunday, June 24, that Italy would fight against Germany in the semifinal, it took only 24 hours to produce the T-shirts and scarves, allowing them to be shipped in time for sale by Thursday evening.
In addition to the temporary stores at the stadiums, Intersport retailers in 28 countries set up a total of 926 dedicated Uefa corners of between 6 and 20 square meters in their own stores during the tournament, selling all kinds of licensed products related to the tournament and Adidas football products.
All in all, Intersport stores sold more than 250,000 replica shirts from the German team this year, with the special-edition green away shirt sold out three weeks before the championships. The Spanish team's replicas came next in terms of quantity, followed by those of the Italian team at a distance. Intersport retailers sold over 800,000 Tango 12 matchballs, which was down from 1 million matchballs four years ago because there are more types of balls now on offer.
Meanwhile, Intersport continued its collaboration with Adidas, Nike and Puma in the area of football, with dedicated marketing campaigns coordinated with execution in the stores. Since last February more than 80 different players sponsored by Adidas and Puma have been wearing special Intersport makeups of football boots in exclusive colorways, including three champions who participated in the final match: Iker Casillas and Xabi Alonso on the Spanish team, both playing normally for Real Madrid, and Ricardo Montolivo from AC Milan, who was playing on the Italian team. Starting next month, Intersport will also have for the first time exclusivity for the boots worn on the pitch by a couple of Nike-sponsored athletes such as Sergio Busquets from FC Barcelona and Sami Khedira from Real Madrid.
In addition to its strengthened sports marketing efforts in the area of football, Intersport continues its involvement in the events organized by the international handball, basketball and ski federations, having signed with all these federations long-term agreements as official sponsor and retailer. Its contract with the basketball federation, Fiba, which runs until 2016, will also cover the Fiba Asia Championships. The agreements with the European and the international handball federations have even longer durations.
