Intersport has opened a new store in Russia for the first time since August 2016, when the banner got a new master franchisee for the country. The new store of 350 square meters is located in the Rio shopping center in downtown St. Petersburg. It is the third Intersport store in the city and the 18th in Russia, according to the Intersport's website. Out of them, Intersport's six stores are located in Moscow and three in Siberia.
Intersport's former master franchisee, Finland's Kesko, was harboring plans for a threefold expansion of the store network in the country from 17 doors to 51 doors by 2019, but in 2016 the Finnish retailer transferred the master franchise to a group of local investors, attributing this step to the weak financial performance of its Russian branch. Kesko continues to be the Intersport licensee for Finland.
According to a Russian consulting agency, Infoline-Analytics, Kesko sold the business for around 200 million rubles (€2.84m-$3.52m). According to a Russian database, Intersport Russia generated a net loss of some Rub 262 million (€3.71m-$4.61m) on revenues of Rub 844 million (€12.0m-$14.8m) in 2015.
The new investors put the expansion plans on hold, as no new Intersport stores have been opened up to now. The new Intersport Russia has been focusing on stabilizing the existing business. According to Intersport International Corporation, it is currently assessing the market and working on a new business plan.
