Kant, the big Russian retailer and wholesaler of sporting goods, has agreed to take over from Sportmaster as the exclusive distributor for Saucony in the Russian Federation, starting with the third quarter of 2018. It is already offering free training in running to its customers, and many of its employees are marathoners, ultra-marathoners and trail runners. While Sportmaster is the largest sports retailer in the country, with more than 450 points of sales, and has exclusive deals with other brands, Kant boasts the largest network of dealers specializing in sporting goods for the brands that it distributes. About 500 of them get the products of Elan, Alpina, Salewa, Buff, Hamax, Reima and about ten other brands from Kant. In addition to its wholesale business and the operation of its own 20 stores, Kant is starting a pilot project to offer branded products in a store within a Decathlon store, as we have already reported (SGI Europe, Vol. 28 N° 32-33 of Oct. 31, 2017). The first store-in-the-store opened in Moscow's Zelenograd shopping center at the end of last year, and it is reportedly working well. There are plans to replicate the business model with Decathlon at about 15 other locations in Russia and to export the concept to Poland.

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