The largest Dutch buying groups for sports retailers delivered contrasting performances amid a sports market that shrank for the first time in several years, in spite of the bonanza that came with the ice at the end of the year.
Mitex, the Dutch retail trade organization, quit monitoring the sports retail business on a monthly basis last year, but a research report published by the ABN Amro bank indicated that sales of Dutch sporting goods and camping retailers dropped by 2 percent last year. It reports that the fall was not too painful in the apparel business, but was all the more so in the footwear and equipment markets. Furthermore, the bank predicts that the Dutch market will suffer another single-digit sales decline in 2009. This comes after two years of expansion, as the market grew by 3 percent in 2006 and another 6.8 percent in 2007.
The ABN Amro report states that sporting goods retailers faced tough competition from fashion apparel and footwear stores. However, they benefited from the fact that increasing numbers of Dutch people decided to stay in the Netherlands for their holidays, and in the coming years, the aging of the population would also favor sports stores that could offer service and advice to senior customers.
Sales of Intersport stores in the Netherlands declined by 3.5 percent to almost exactly €200 million in 2008. But this was almost entirely due to the fact that the number of affiliated stores had dropped by four to 111 at the end of the year, and comparable sales were almost stagnant, with a tiny drop of 0.1 percent.
Meanwhile, the Coach lifestyle stores affiliated with the same buying group, Intersport Nederland, reported sales of about €30.4 million in 2008, which was an increase of 10.5 percent for the year, but this was chiefly due to the fact that the store count was raised by eight, to reach a network of 53 stores at the end of the year. In comparable terms, sales of the Coach stores crept up by just 1 percent.
Intersport Nederland has already taken many measures to streamline its organization in the last years, under the leadership of Nico van Offeren, and this appears set to continue under the sport unit’s new general manager, Bart Muurlings. Among the latest changes, members of Intersport Nederland that did not trade under either the Intersport or the Coach banner, formerly described as the GOS members, were regrouped in a new organization called Retailsamenwerking Sport.
Meanwhile, the central settlements of Euretco Sport, the Dutch buying group for Sport 2000, Runnersworld and others, increased by 2 percent to €134.6 million without including those of Time-Out, a chain sold to USG last year. The sales of Sport 2000 retail members jumped by 13 percent to nearly €154 million, as 10 stores were added during the year to form a network of 122 stores. In comparable terms, the banner’s sales were up by just 1 percent.
Runnersworld continued to expand, albeit at a slower pace than in the last years, with just one opening to reach 25 stores. Its sales increased by 28 percent to €14 million, and comparable sales rose by 3 percent. No figures were available for Time Out, the sports lifestyle banner under Euretco Sport.
It should be noted that neither the Intersport Nederland nor the Euretco figures are directly comparable with those published for 2007, due to a change in the activities encompassed by the reported turnover.
