Game 7 Athletics is the Italian chain of sporting goods stores born in 2008 from the ashes of the former bankrupt Giacomelli Sport. For its last financial year, ended on June 30, the company has reported its first net profit since Champion Europe bought selected assets of the former Giacomelli in 2006.
In spite of the difficult economic situation, Game 7 Athletics made a net profit of €2.5 million in the past year. It generated an operating margin before amortization (Ebitda) of 9 percent on its net sales, which increased by 14 percent to €59.4 million. Further improvements in sales, operating profit and net earnings are expected for the current financial year.
Champion Europe adopted the Game 7 Athletics name in 2007 when it opened the first flagship store in Modena, featuring a new airy design. It then used the banner to rename 30 of the 43 former Giacomelli Sport stores it had taken over. The others were closed or renamed Basketball Central or Champion.
About ten new Game 7 Athletics stores have been opened every year since. Just over a month ago, the 50th door started up in the brand-new shopping gallery of the Juventus Arena in Turin. The company plans to roll out an additional nine stores by next June, ending the financial year with 60 units employing a staff of more than 500 people and occupying almost 60,000 square meters of net retail space.
Developed as a “house of brands” with a unique design to distinguish it from Décathlon, which has rapidly raised its market share in Italy, the concept of Game 7 Athletics focuses on clothing and footwear. It offers much less hardware than Cisalfa Sport or Intersport.
Symbolically, Game 7 Athletics reported its turnaround as it inaugurated its 51st store on Nov. 30 in a high-traffic location at Piazza Argentina in Milan. Giacomelli had reclaimed that site, which formerly housed a famous cinema, to set up one of its biggest flagship stores. Soon after it bought the Giacomelli chain, Champion Europe turned it into a store called Basketball Central, with a dedicated corner to display the NBA products for which it still had a license at the time. The store has been selling other basketball products, including those branded other licenses held by Champion Europe. That same 1,000-square-meter store in Milan has taken on the name of Game 7 Athletics. The company's other Basketball Central store in Bologna has been granting more of its retail space to Champion products.
