Audin Kanatli, a former Nike and Levi's executive, has been appointed general manager of Intersport Atletik A.S., the new name of Intersport Turkey A.S., after the retailer finalized its acquisition by Fourlis Holding, the Intersport licensee in Greece, Romania, Bulgaria and Cyprus. The leading sports retailer in Turkey was previously run by Levent Yarcan, who has become Intersport Atletik's chairman and whose family still holds a stake in the company.
The fact that the new Greek owners have picked a Turkish manager to head up Intersport Atletik went down well at a press conference in Istanbul a few days ago. Kanatli spent seven years at Nike Turkey, where he headed own retailing and franchised stores, and was in charge of some wholesale accounts. He spent the last two years at Levi's, first supervising its own retail operations in Turkey and then all distributors in the Middle East, CIS countries and Turkey.
As reported earlier this year, Intersport Turkey was formally taken over by Intersport Atletik, which is owned at 75 percent by the Fourlis group and at 25 percent by the Yarcan family. They previously had half of the shares in Sporting Güngör A.S., a retail and distribution company that obtained the Intersport license for Turkey in 2005. Earlier this year the Yarcans bought the other half of Sporting Güngör from Iceturk, an Icelandic investment fund, and they will continue to run it as a pure distribution company.
When the deal was unveiled in February, Intersport Atletik intended to take over 20 out of the 29 Intersport Turkey stores, but in an agreement signed two weeks ago, they bought only 14 of the stores – the largest in the network, mostly situated in shopping malls. Eleven of these stores are fully owned by Intersport Atletik and the three others franchised. The 15 remaining Intersport stores and franchises will have the right to carry the Intersport banner until the end of the year, and will then have to be closed down or to carry on trading independently.
Although Intersport Atletik is starting off with fewer stores than expected, it will expand faster than initially planned. It aims to have about 50 Turkish stores in three to five years' time, which would require an investment of an estimated €30 million. The retailer would then employ more than 1,000 people.
The investment will start with three new stores in the coming months, in Istanbul, Antalya and Ankara, all with a surface of about 1,000 square meters. With the Turkish takeover, the Fourlis group has 68 own and three franchised Intersport stores in five countries, and it intends to lift the tally to about 150 stores in the next five years.
