Yannick Morat, 37, has replaced William Monti as chairman of Sport 2000 France. The resignation of Monti was largely expected after the French private equity firm Activa Capital increased its stake in the French cooperative to 51 percent from 37 percent.
Monti took a back seat in the French buying group last May when he was elected chairman of Sport 2000 International, a position that he is supposed to hold at least until the annual general assembly this May. It was decided at that time that Marc Oursin, who formerly led Carrefour in Belgium, would replace Monti as chief executive of Sport 2000 France.
The group has also renewed its management board. Sport 2000 Invest, which represents the retail members of the buying group, appointed Pascal Baldinger, Jérôme Camps, Bernard Michel and Jean-Louis Parent along with Morat. Activa is represented by Charles Diehl, Philippe Latorre and Olivier Nemsguern.
Notwithstanding his age, Morat is a veteran of the sporting goods industry, having started his international career working for Salomon's sourcing business in South Korea before moving to the U.S. to be in charge of procurement negotiations with Asian providers for Adidas.
He returned to France in 2000 to work for Salomon's supply chain. Two years later, Morat took over the Sport 2000 store in Chambéry run by his family since 1970. In 2003, he set up a company, Frasteya, that operates five Sport 2000 stores in different French towns.
Sport 2000 France, which has already shut down or sold 18 corporate stores in the last few months, is reportedly negotiating the dismissal of seven other units in the Paris region The new management hopes that its retail members will open between 10 and 20 relatively large new stores each year.
