Sport Point Group (SPG) is a highly secretive Italian consortium of independent sporting goods retailers that has been working until now with another buying group based in France, Twinner International. It was even a shareholder of Twinner, but it had apparently become critical of its collaboration with Intersport in France, and it pulled out unilaterally at the beginning of this year.
Founded in 1997 by Jafet Rescali, a former importer of Dynastar and Look in Italy, SPG currently services 120 retailers that have 235 stores in 14 regions of Italy. In the absence of any figures on their part, we last estimated their retail turnover at €330 million after VAT for 2008, giving its members a market share of 5 percent in a market restated by us to €6.0 billion, but Sport 2000 France says their sales were more like €250 million, based on annual purchases of around €120 million.
Sport 2000 France announced today that it has signed an agreement with SPG that will allow its members to use the Sport 2000 banner on an exclusive basis in Italy, and to launch a system of centralized settlements with the support of the powerful DZB bank of Ariston-Nord-West-Ring, which is the parent company of Sport 2000 in Germany.
Sport 2000 France said it was also planning to develop synergies with SPG in the future in the areas of purchasing and private label. Operating with a very small structure, SPG was not offering centralized settlements previously. It has been developing special make-ups, especially in the ski sector, and negotiating special conditions for quantity discounts with many important brands, but it has not been involved in purchasing, leaving this function up to the individual retail members.
For the moment, a larger Italian buying group, Sport Alliance, has the exclusive rights to benefit in Italy from the special conditions and special make-ups negotiated with the major sports brands by Sport 2000 International, of which it is a shareholder. The group has its own centralized settlements and its own exclusive brands, but it stopped working with DZB around 2001 and it has refused to adopt the Sport 2000 brand for franchising purposes. Officials of Sport Alliance said they were surprised by the deal. They are currently negotiating the terms of a possible end to their purchasing agreements with Sport 2000. Officials of Sport 2000 France said they were aiming for a settlement that would allow SPG members to benefit from these conditions starting with the spring/summer 2011 collections.
In teaming up with SPG, Sport 2000 has found a partner that has been more willing to invest in the Sport 2000 banner. Many members of SPG had already adopted the Twinner banner in one form or another, but some of them have already switched to the Sport 2000 banner, and SPG has stated that all the 80 affiliated stores located in mountain regions will show it off during the coming winter sports season. SPG will also switch over from Twinner to Sport 2000 for its own online reservation service for ski and snowboard rentals.
Sport 2000 France, which is enjoying a strong development thanks to new financing, has signed the deal with SPG in its new role as member of Sport 2000 International in charge of the brand’s development in Southern Europe. It is looking for similar partners in Spain and Portugal, particularly since the recent pull-out of the former Spanish partner of Sport 2000, Detall Sport, which has not been willing to adopt the Sport 2000 banner either.
