Intersport Germany adjusted its final figures on the group's 2012 retail sales, which we reported in December on a preliminary basis. In the end, the affiliated retailers increased their sales by 2.2 percent to €2.76 billion after VAT. According to Klaus Jost, joint president of the group, the last two weeks during the critical holiday season were simply too warm, which led to the loss of crucial percentage points by the end of last year. In addition, the management recognized that some of the shares of the holiday business went to consumer electronics. Possibly, consumers turned to such categories because of the weather, which was not conducive to winter sports. As a result, Intersport, by far the country's largest retail organization of skis and other snow sports products, wants to become less winter-dependent. To achieve this goal, Intersport is pushing into sectors such as wellness and health ? which was basically an underlying theme for this year's Ispo Munich as well. In cooperation with Nike, Reebok and others, Intersport plans various marketing campaigns in the fitness category and emphasizing the affiliated retailers' profile as health experts. This adjusted strategy goes along with the fact that the group cannot rely on significant sales emerging from major sports events such as top football tournaments or Olympic games in the current year. As announced earlier, Intersport Germany will go live with its new multi-channel approach under the leadership of its newly created subsidiary, Intersport Multichannel. Since last July, the company has trained 100 employees of affiliated retailers to get prepared for the online business. The new approach is intended to make Intersport retailers take their share of the growing online business and to use it for enhanced traffic in their own shops, since consumers are invited to pick up the purchased gear in the Intersport shop nearby. Orders that go to the shopper by mail will be shipped from the headquarters to ensure that packaging and fulfillment are in line with the group's corporate identity.

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