Intersport Italia is opening the first company-owned store in the peninsula next month. Located in the city of Reggio Emilia, not far from Intersport Italia’s head office, it will measure 1,000 square meters and will be based on a brand-new store concept, adapted to the special competitive environment of the country, that the members of the voluntary group can replicate. A maximum of 4-5 other company-owned Intersport stores will follow in the next couple of years.
The move is very significant because nearly all the affiliated members of Intersport in Italy continue to trade under their own individual banners including the biggest one of them, Cisalfa Sport. The only exceptions are two retailers who opened four Intersport shops in Umbria and one in the region of Campania last year. Measuring about 800 sqm. each, they are all different from each other.

In Italy, Intersport is attempting to position itself as a strong alternative to Décathlon’s superstores, reserving about 80 percent of its retail space to the brands. After lengthy negotiations, Intersport Italia signed a new agreement with Nike a few weeks ago that is similar to the contracts that Nike has with other Intersport organizations around Europe. It calls among other things for the introduction of an exclusive line of football boots in September named after Gennaro Gattuso, the Italian football star. Intersport Italia signed a special contract also with Colmar, one of the major Italian sports apparel companies.

The Intersport banner is well established in Sweden, but it suffered last year from the pullout of several retail members operating in Stockholm and its metropolitan area who launched a new banner of their own, called GO, that has practically no private label. The new general manager of Intersport Sverige, Fredrik Johanson, has announced that some of its remaining retail members have decided to open at least four Intersport branded shops in Stockholm region this year, including one in the downtown area of the capital. Six others will start up in the rest of the country.

The French members of Intersport plan to add at least 40 new stores in 2007, of which about 30 will be under the Intersport banner. The others will include two Sport Leader stores based on a new concept in Brest and Nancy. The Sport Leader banner suffered recently from the secession of a big retail member who has since gone more into sports fashion. Two other banners of the French group, Sport Expert and La Halle Aux Sport, performed less well than the Intersport banner last year, reporting sales declines of 4.15 percent in absolute terms and of 2.77 percent on a same-store basis. The sports shoe banner of the group, Shooz, instead grew by 15.20 percent in absolute terms and by 3.48 percent on a comparable store basis.

Overall, the French Groupe Intersport raised its retail sales by 6.91 percent to €1,050 million in 2006, thanks in part to the opening of three new Intersport stores in the mountain resorts and 38 others in the rest of France. Another 13 stores were expanded. The stores in the mountain resorts saw their sales rise by 3 percent, but on a comparable store basis they were down by 5 percent. The others’ sales went up by 8.15 percent, with a 3.83 percent gain on a same-store basis.
Groupe Intersport’s retail revenues include the sales of the Intersport members in Belgium, which increased by 8.23 percent to €48.7 billion in 2006, including a 3.35 percent increase on a comparable store basis. Four new stores joined the Belgian network in the past year.