Following the election of a new Board of Management in September 2022 and after an evaluation of the post-pandemic world, Intersport Group has unveiled a new strategy called “Grow Together Faster.” The strategy aims to ensure that Intersport’s current success of record retail results in 2022 can continue. After hinting at certain elements of the strategy, today, Intersport unveiled full details about what the program actually means for the sports retailer.
To put it simply, under a series of ambitious short and midterm goals and objectives for the period up to 2026, Intersport aims to be the preferred choice for all consumers, and connect everyone to the benefits of sport, health, and wellness.
Intersport’s “grow together faster” strategy a result of industry analysis
After a thorough analysis of the sporting goods market, changing consumer behaviors, its own omnichannel strategy and the organizational structure at Intersport International Corporation (IIC), one outcome was the need for a new strategy and a new organizational and operational setup. This, says Intersport, is required in order to make a greater impact on consumers and to become more efficient.
We have already seen some implementation of this with the recently announced restructured category management, international supplier management and strategic purchasing teams.
The new operating model is intended to create a sharper focus on strengthening the cooperative culture, with an intensified bottom-up collaboration across the group and a more unified tone of voice towards the consumer and the industry.
Intersport’s “Grow Together Faster” strategy summarized
The main objectives and targets set forth in Intersport’s new “Grow Together Faster” strategy can be summarized as follows:
- Accelerate growth by working together with all national organizations (N/O), their members and Intersport’s own strategic brand partners to achieve maximum market potential;
- Enhance agility by reacting faster to trends and being the consumer’s first choice in every country;
- Leverage the proximity of Intersport’s local entrepreneurs to consumers, and combine this with their expertise;
- Further enhance the Intersport omnichannel and multiformat excellence by offering consumers a unique, tailor-made Intersport experience in every market;
- Strengthen governance to leverage the expertise of N/Os and adopt a truly collaborative approach.
- Involve more representatives from N/Os to enhance cooperation and coordination within the Intersport Group, including a new buddy system coupling national experts with senior management team members at IIC;
- Commit to environmental and social governance (ESG)
- Expand Intersport’s private label brands like McKinley and Energetics according to the principles of circular design and development.
The CEO of IIC, Steve Evers, when discussing the announcement of the strategy, stated: “With the implementation of the new strategy […] the Group will be unified and define its plans and solutions in a true bottom-up approach. With this approach, the Intersport Group is well prepared for the future.”
You can read more about Steve Evers’ vision for the future of Intersport as well as his views on the sports retailer industry in our exclusive interview.
