Most likely, the German Intersport organization will not repeat its record results of last year, mainly because it has been suffering from negative weather conditions most of the year. Snowfalls stopped abruptly from one day to the next in early January, spring was too warm and the autumn has been too mild so far. In 2010, the group reached sales of €2.91 billion in retail sales after VAT, but will probably end at some €2.7 billion this year depending on the development of the last days of the important holiday season. The figures apply to the calendar year and not to Intersport Germany's fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.
The presidents of Intersport Germany, Klaus Jost and Kim Roether, emphasized that the negative aspects of the global economic crisis and hefty currency problems, but said the weather was the most important factor for the figures. What is more, the outgoing year has had to compete with a fantastic year 2010 not only as a whole, but also on the basis on month-by-month comparison from one year to the other. For example, November 2011 was the sunniest and driest on record since the end of the 19th century. In November 2010, the Intersport retailers reached an increase of 23 percent in sales compared with the same month in the previous year, a result that could not be repeated this year.
Most probably, depending on the results of Christmas sales, the decline for Intersport will be stronger than for the entire German sporting goods market. For Intersport the management estimates a decrease of 7 percent, whereas the whole market might deflate by some 4 percent to €7.6 billion. This figure follows the traditional German way of defining the market, which means not including cycling, golf, hunting and fishing. The fact that Intersport's decrease is going to be more significant than the one of the sports market as a whole is basically due to the fact that Intersport is by far the largest seller of skis and related goods in the country.
The most important categories on the group's shelves remain longtime essentials: snow sports, outdoor, running, fitness and team sports (including fan items). It is remarkable that the outdoor category, after many years of strong growth, has remained stable this year. That does not point to a change of trends in Germany, but is again due to unfavorable weather conditions.
Football is down by 8 percent, which is no surprise at all: As always, sales decrease significantly when there is no major international soccer tournament around. 2011 had to compete with the previous year, when the German team reached third place at the Fifa World Cup in South Africa. This summer, Germany hosted the women's World Cup, but the usually victorious German girls were surprisingly kicked out of the race at an early stage, which did not help to fuel replica sales.
The flat snow conditions helped the running and walking sector, which was up by 10 percent, while snow sports sales were down by a massive 24 percent. Fitness went up by 5 percent and even racquet sports – a traditionally difficult category in the country – recovered by 2 percent. Swimwear and related fashion slipped by 2 percent.
After years of decreasing figures for the number of affiliated retailers, Intersport Germany managed a turnaround: The group welcomed 48 new members this year. Given the fact that some retailers shut down or left the group, the net number of retailers increased from 1,030 to 1,045. The number of doors increased by 40 to 1,498. The net selling surface gained 40,000 square meters and reached a total of 960,000 square meters. The management of Intersport Germany estimates that new members, new stores, and the revamping or move to new locations of 80 outlets will lead to an increase in annual sales of some €80 million.
Voswinkel, the chain that Intersport has directly controlled since 2003, has recorded a moderate expansion by two doors to a total of 60. Additionally, Intersport Adventure, a specialty format for outdoor stores run by affiliated retailers, increased from six to eight in the outgoing year.
Meanwhile, Intersport Polska, a publicly listed company in which Intersport Germany is a minority shareholder, suffered similarly from bad weather conditions. In the first nine months of this year, its revenues went down to 150.0 million zlotys (€33.6m-$25.8m) compared with PLN 165.8 million in previous year's period. From January to September, the net profit in 2010 of PLN 23,000 turned into a loss of PLN 4,423 (€990,000-$1.2m). Sources say that this was only due to the weather and is not connected to any currency crisis.
Intersport Polska opened its doors number 30 and 31 in September and October. One is located in the Galeria Kaskada shopping mall in the northwestern city of Szczecin which is operated by ECE, the shopping mall developer of Otto Group, which is also a member of Intersport. The 1,000-square-meter store features a prominent department for outdoor products. The opening was followed by another Intersport store in the southeastern town of Rzeszow with a selling surface of 800 m². In the meantime, a smaller shop was shut down.
