After taking Nike to Nigeria, Libya and Algeria in the last few years, the brand’s exclusive distributor in Malta since 1988, Time International (Sport) Limited, is expanding rapidly into neighboring Italy with a very creative store franchising concept called Urban Jungle. This geographical diversification makes sense for Time International, which went through a management buyout last year, in part because of the relatively small size of the Maltese sporting goods market
The Italian Urban Jungle stores focus mainly on Nike and Converse, another brand that Time International has been representing in Malta exclusively since 15 years ago. The Italian stores also offer books, magazines and collectibles inspired by the latest urban culture trends. Nike is giving full support to the Italian Urban Jungle project, providing exclusive lifestyle-oriented items that don’t compete with those of the local multi-brand sporting goods stores. Nike’s products take up about 70 percent of the retail space, which varies between 90 and 200 square meters.
The sell-through goes from €6,000 to €10,000 per m² in these stores. Four Italian franchisees have so far adopted the concept, opening a total of six shops in Sicily and in the Naples region since April 2006. Two additional ones are in the pipeline. The locations include Naples itself, Caserta, Agrigento, Messina, Milazzo and Ragusa.
Targeting 50 more openings in the next five years, Time International is currently in discussions with other potential franchisees in various parts of Europe. The company’s preliminary incursion into the Italian peninsula was facilitated by Malta’s accession to the European Union in 2004. Conversely, membership in the EU has made it easier for Italian interests to set up a couple of large multi-brand sporting goods stores in Malta, called Team Sport, where most of the items on sale are purchased in Italy.
There are already 13 Urban Jungle stores operating in Malta, and they are all franchised by Time International. The Italian Urban Jungle stores have adapted the same concept to the local environment, using a different design. The Maltese units allocate about 80 percent of their space to Nike products. On top of that, nine of them feature a corner for the sale of trendy sunglasses and watches, called Sun Lab, which is franchised by another Maltese firm.
Time International is now going one step further in its merchandising program with the opening of yet another shop format, called Urban Culture – Gift of Desire, starting with a franchise in Valletta, the capital of Malta. The 30-square-meter shop will offer a narrow selection of Nike and Converse shoes along with sunglasses and watches in a more limited range, intended mainly for gifts.
Time International opened its first Urban Jungle store in Malta in 1991, featuring Nike and other brands, but it has since turned all its stores into franchises because of skyrocketing real estate prices and a desire to concentrate on providing its franchisees with marketing support, spending up to 8 percent of its revenues on marketing and promotion activities, including POS material. Among other initiatives, Time International sponsors the Malta Marathon, which attracts more than 800 participants each year, and the football team of La Valletta as well as other leading clubs involved in other sports activities
The company recently signed an exclusive distribution contract for the country with Crocs. It has about 30 multi-brand clients in the sporting goods sector in Malta, and sells to many shoe shops. It recently refurbished a factory outlet opened in the middle of the main island one year ago that its clients use to sell off their closeout merchandise - on a consignment basis.
As it has done with some other strong European distributors such as Delta Sport in Serbia or Elmec Sport in Greece, Nike extended around five years ago the territory covered by Time International to some African countries, starting with Nigeria. Libya and Algeria followed soon after. The Maltese company has established two offices in Africa to assist local partners who have made investments in Nike shops. There are seven such shops now in Libya, called Sports World (no relation to Mike Ashley’s stores in the UK and Belgium), and three more will follow this year. There are three such stores in Algeria operating under the Tasha name, in addition to many wholesale accounts, and two others will follow soon.
Time International is run by a team of four highly motivated young executives coordinated by Alfie Borg. They acquired the company one year ago from the former controlling shareholder, Daniel Reginiano, who originally imported Swatch watches. He took on the LA Gear brand for a while. Borg, who is now 43 years old, joined the company 24 years ago as a sales rep and was behind its appointment as Nike’s distributor in 1988.
