The European Sporting Goods Industry Association, FESI, is circulating a statement calling on national government authorities to avoid “another catastrophic season” for the winter sporting goods industry, particularly in view of recent increases in the number of Covid infections in certain countries, which are creating the risk of “localized waves.” The statement was co-signed by 11 European and national trade associations and 14 large and small winter sporting goods companies and brands, plus Intersport and Sport 2000.
The signatories are asking for uniform policies to be adopted at the European level for the effective application of the founding principle of freedom of movement inside the European Union, which was not respected during the autumn/winter 2020/21 season due to uncoordinated national efforts to combat the Covid-19 virus. They point out that competition in the important tourism sector would be distorted if different national regulations are taken for access to catering, hotel and retailing operations.
The document stresses that the present conditions are safe enough to adopt such uniform legislation now that the vaccination rate has risen to around 70 percent of the population all over Europe. Furthermore, the statement points out, skiing and snowboarding are among the most individual sports, practiced with sufficient distance between participants to avoid contamination.
In the U.S. and Canada, reasonable, simple and well-executed distancing measures were adopted in the ski resorts during the last winter season. On the other hand, more and more sports events with overcrowded stadiums and music festivals have been recently organized in compliance with sanitary measures without triggering any major international contamination.
The joint statement says that the coming winter season will be “decisive” for the survival of many companies at the wholesale and retail levels as they will try to recover at least some of the losses suffered in the past one.
Significantly lower orders have been placed to the snow sports industry, which is dominated by European manufacturers, because of the big drop in the retailers’ sales of winter sports products. “The resulting negative domino effect could have massive consequences for the world market leaders in the European ski industry,” the document states.
At the retail level, some of the urban sporting goods stores were able to make up in part for the sales lost during the past winter with higher sales of bicycles, home fitness and outdoor equipment, aside from some supply chain shortages.
The situation is quite different for the specialized stores located in the winter sport resorts, many of which are small family-owned operations without a web shop. According to earlier findings, 89 percent of them recorded a loss in activity of up to 50 percent during the past snow sports season, while the remaining 11 percent suffered a loss of more than 80 percent. Even in the countries where ski lifts were open, 67 percent of the operators in the winter sports sector had to face a strong decrease in the number of visitors.
