Champion Europe, which bought Giacomelli Sport two years ago, when it was still losing money, has decided to reposition the Italian sporting goods chain after its inability to generate profits under its older format. It will keep only 30 of the 43 remaining stores in Italy and rename them Game 7 Athletics after the American expression for the final playoffs, concentrating on pure sports and offering a broader range of products by fewer brands
As reported in SGI Europe last Nov. 26, some of the former Giacomelli Sport stores are being re-branded as Basketball Central. The first two stores under this name were opened by Champion Europe in Milan and Bologna, taking the place of the existing Giacomelli Sport stores.
The first store under the name and format of Game 7 Athletics was opened earlier this month in the Fiumeveneto shopping mall of Pordenone. It measures about 1,000 square meters, which will be the standard size of most of the future stores. A bigger one will open over a surface of 2,200 square meters in the new Grande Emilia shopping center of Modena in August. Subsequently, existing Giacomelli Sport stores will be closed or converted to Game 7 Athletics, and the company will open five or six new stores every year to reach a total of 50 units eventually.
Fewer than a dozen brands are participating in the first inning of this new project, including some that were severely burnt when Giacomelli went bust. Besides Champion, they include Adidas, Nike, Diadora, Lotto, Arena, Speedo, Helly Hansen and Columbia Sportswear. The retailer is working closely with this brand, sharing marketing investments while obtaining special volume discounts.
The Game 7 Athletics project is steered by Gigetto Furlotto, a vice president of Champion Europe who has been with the company for two decades. Last July, he replaced Massimo Caccialupi, the former executive of Benetton SportSystem who had been initially hired to run the Giacomelli Sport chain.
