Intersport, which claims a share of 25 percent of the European football market through its affiliated stores, has decided to revise upward this year’s budget for their total group retail sales of football products. They should reach a level of between €860 million and €870 million (after VAT) in 2010, up from a previous estimate of €850 million and from the €710 million score of 2006, when Germany hosted the World Cup.
One reason for this unexpected success was obviously the fact that three important football nations where Intersport is strong – Germany, the Netherlands and Spain – had a strong visibility during the final phases of the tournament. However, company officials point out that Intersport stores could have even sold a lot more jerseys in these three countries if Adidas and Nike had been able to deliver them at the last minute. They were already sold out in Spain at the beginning of last week and in the Netherlands for the last three weeks.
In Germany alone, Intersport stores sold about 150,000 shirts during the six to seven months before the World Cup, and a similar number during the World Cup, but here again, they could have sold more if Adidas had been able to deliver more of them.
Intersport’s strong football cooperation with Adidas has proven to be very successful. Intersport has an exclusive package deal with football boots, balls and textile products including the yellow version of the F50 adiZero boot. Intersport stores exclusively sell the yellow model of this football shoe, which was worn by 48 players who scored 16 goals during the World Cup in South Africa. This package was supported by a pan-European marketing campaign and POS material. Two key World Cup players, Arien Robben from the Dutch team and Lukas Podolski from the German team, were the icons of this campaign.
Because of the World Cup, sales of football products have represented between 10 and 20 percent of the average Intersport store’s sales in June 2010, depending on the country, compared with between 6 and 10 percent in a normal non-tournament year. Again depending on the country, football sales were up by between 2 and 16 percent from June 2009. Since December 2009 this included some 1.2 million balls made by Adidas not only for the World Cup but also for Champions League, the Europe League and some national leagues. Intersport sold 1,150,000 Adidas balls during the same period in 2005-06, but with a higher proportion of World Cup balls – 1,050,000 balls in 2006 against 840,000 this year.
The football euphoria contributed to an estimated 4.5 percent rise in the total revenues of affiliated Intersport retailers for the first six months of this year. Swimwear and outdoor products made a contribution in June, too, while running and fitness remained stable at satisfactory levels.
Intersport plans to continue its investments in football next year. Intersport Germany will notably act as the official sports store of Fifa’s Women’s World Cup, which will be played in Germany in 2011. Noting that sales of women’s replica shirts were sold out early throughout Europe this year, Franz Julen, chief executive of Intersport International, feels that the market for women’s football shirts could easily double in the near future, thanks in part to more widespread public viewing of the tournaments and many new modern and clean stadiums throughout Europe.
The women’s segment is currently estimated at somewhere between 5 and 10 percent of total sales of football replica products, compared with shares of between 40 and 45 percent in running and fitness.
