Gustaf Öhrn will replace Ulf Eklöf as the new group president of Stadium as of Apr. 1. One of his primary tasks will be to look at ways of increasing the profitability of the leading Swedish sporting goods retail chain after heavy investments in the past few years. He is also expected to better clarify the various store concepts of the group including the new Stadium XXL mega-store recently opened in Sisjön and the www.stadium.se website.
Öhrn, who is 40 years old, has many years of experience in the retail trade and in fashion. Besides spending many years with H&M, he has been managing director of Fotoquick and J. Lindeberg. He has acted most recently as a consultant. Ulf Eklöf, who will turn 56 years old next summer, will remain on the board of directors and concentrate on certain projects.
His brother Bo remains as vice president and purchasing manager, and his 33-year-old son Karl is still vice president and sales director. Karl was assigned to this position last September after acting as Stadium’s country manager in Denmark. He was succeeded in that post by Bertil Viker, a 44-year-old manager from Norway who has had retail experience also in Sweden and Denmark. He previously acted as vice president and sales manager at Computer City in Denmark. The members of the Eklöf family hold a 75 percent stake in the company, whose first store opened in 1987 on Sergelgatan in Stockholm. They recently sold the balance to Ikano, a company owned by the Kamrad family which owns IKEA.
Stadium currently operates a total of 110 stores in Sweden, Denmark and Finland. Its sales are estimated to have reached about 4.5 billion Swedish kronor (€476m-$706m) including VAT in the year ended last August. They should reach a budgeted 4.9 billion SEK (€518m-$768m) in the present financial year.
