The retail members of Intersport Austria will regain ownership of the shares in their national cooperative, which had been transferred to Intersport Germany in 2013 on an interim basis. The aim at the time was to provide the Austrian retail organization with economic support following the pull-out of its largest member, Sport Eybl & Sports Experts, which was then sold to Sports Direct International.
The members of Intersport Austria currently manage a total of 350 stores in Austria as well as the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. After many years of strong growth, they apparently lost the leadership in the Austrian sporting goods market following the retreat two years ago of another big member, Bründl Sports, which has decided to go it alone.
Nevertheless, Intersport Germany says that the Intersport Austria group has “demonstrated a strong performance and sound economic development” in the past years, and that it is “well positioned to further expand and grow sustainably with a healthy retailer structure and a very service-oriented headquarters in Wels.”
The transaction, which is subject to approval by the Austrian anti-trust authorities, is set to be implemented through the sale of Intercontact Austria, a fully owned subsidiary of Intersport Germany, to Premiumsport Service, which is owned by the Austrian retail members. It is supported by the five largest remaining Intersport retailers in Austria – Harald Tscherne, Roman Winninger, Erhard Fischer, Reinhard Klier and Bernard Pilz – who have advanced funds to help finance and organize the re-distribution of the shares in Intersport Austria.
The German and Austrian Intersport cooperatives will continue to work jointly through bilateral service agreements to take advantage of synergies in core processes such as strategic purchasing, category management, the development of exclusive Intersport collections, IT and omni-channel operations.
The transfer of ownership, which is expected to be completed in the summer, will “strengthen the entrepreneurial responsibility in our retailer group and provide a clear commitment to our retailer-run roots, which still are at the core of Intersport’s DNA,” comments Knud Hansen, chairman of Intersport Germany’s supervisory board.
