Feeling that it was about to reach the limits of growth in its home country, where overall retail sales fell steeply this past summer, the Irish sporting goods retailer bought the 22 stores of City Sport in the Czech Republic last November, after looking at other countries with populations of less than 15 million people, like the Republic of Ireland. However, while starting up a major new development program in Eastern Europe, it has continued to expand in Ireland as well, based on a successful new store format inaugurated one year ago.
Lifestyle Sports has opened seven new stores in Ireland since last October, while closing three smaller ones, and it is planning to add another three before the end of this year. With 78 shops, including 13 in Northern Ireland, the chain remains the biggest player in the region. Its growing retail network is supported by a newly installed information technology system.
The Irish retailer is also moving fast in the Czech Republic, where all the former City Sport stores have been re-branded as Lifestyle Sports since last April. Three new stores were opened in that country a few weeks ago and seven more will follow before Christmas. Another three will be remodeled. While the average size of the stores is smaller than in Ireland, averaging about 400-450 square meters, the lifestyle-oriented store fit is broadly similar to the Irish pattern, but the range of products offered in the stores is different.
While expanding in the Czech Republic, the company has already started to talk to real estate developers to prepare its entry into Slovakia, before attacking subsequently the Hungarian market. For this purpose, it has decided to move the head office of the chain from Prague to Brno. It has also recruited a new managing director for the region, Michael Pospisil, who was previously chief executive of the Tacco chain for the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Lifestyle Sports is targeting sales of between €20 million and €25 million in the Czech Republic for this year. They will complement the turnover achieved by the chain in the Republic of Ireland and in Northern Ireland, which reached about €170 million last year, with growth of somewhere between 5 and 10 percent on a same-store basis.
