Intersport Germany has agreed to buy its largest member, in terms of number of points of sale, in the former East Germany. Wolfgang Rossow, founder and managing partner of Sportpoint Holding, is selling his shares to Intercontact Beteiligungsgesellschaft. This company is the holding company through which Intersport entirely or partly owns other firms such as its corporate chain Intersport Voswinkel and its 25 percent stake in Intersport Polska.
Rossow is said to want to slow down a little as a businessman, but he may launch another chain of sporting goods stores on a smaller scale. Rossow was an East German entrepreneur who moved into the business right after the fall of the Berlin Wall and began building up in 1992 a chain across the old East German territory that now has 17 outlets.
Intersport itself has made its intentions clear with regard to this acquisition. With Rossow moving on, the group wants to enable some of its affiliated retailers to replace Sportpoint in some towns and cities. Apparently, the management of Intersport Germany is thus following a different strategy compared with the one adopted when it acquired Sport Voswinkel back in 2002.
At the time, it caused uproar among affiliated retailers because it had bought not only a member, but actually the second-largest one after Sport Scheck, becoming a competitor for its own members. In the case of Sportpoint, Intersport said that some of its stores have been offered to members who may be interested in buying them. Those that will not find a buyer are set to be integrated in the corporate Voswinkel chain.
