Decathlon Germany to open stores at Galeria locations

Decathlon and the Galeria department store chain have announced a strategic partnership that will change the retail landscape in Germany. As part of this collaboration, Decathlon will open new stores at several Galeria locations throughout Germany. Starting in July 2025, Decathlon will successively open stores in the cities of Konstanz, Duisburg, Freiburg, Trier and Kassel with floor areas of 1,500 to 3,500 square meters.

These stores will be staffed by Decathlon employees. The company expects to have 25 to 75 teammates at each location. Galeria has around 80 locations in Germany at the moment but also faces some difficulties, as SGI Europe has reported.

“This pioneering partnership is a milestone for both companies,” said Stefan Kaiser, Director of Real Estate at Decathlon Germany. “By taking over space in central city locations, we will be able to reach our customers even better in the future and offer them an attractive shopping experience.”

Galeria said the overarching goal of its collaboration between Galeria and Decathlon is to use this strategic collaboration to expand its presence in attractive and fast-growing cities and to address new customer groups.

“We are extremely pleased about this groundbreaking cooperation, which represents another milestone in our strategic course of expanding our assortment through targeted partnerships and thus inspiring new target groups for Galeria,” Alexa Deters, Chief Commercial Officer at Galeria, said. “With Decathlon, we are bringing in a leading expert in sporting goods to round out our own sports assortment, thus creating a range at Galeria that is perfectly tailored to the needs and expectations of our customers.”

Following the first successful tests, Decathlon plans to open further stores in Galeria centers. SGI Europe has maneged to speak with Julia Schallmeir, Head of PR and Communications at Decathlon Germany.

SGI Europe: You mentioned Decathlon expects “25 to 75 teammates per location.” How many more new hires will Decathlon Germany make and what types of positions will they fill?

Schallmeir: As part of our wave of expansion, we plan to create thousands of new jobs in Germany by 2027. In addition to the integration of existing employees, we will also be hiring new staff in order to ensure optimal operations. We are confident that with this team we will be able to offer our customers an outstanding shopping experience. Our focus will be on creating new retail jobs, including sales associates, team leaders, and positions in services and repairs, such as bicycle mechanics or certified bicycle mechanic masters. Interested candidates can apply via Decathlon’s online career portal.

After these first five stores, where will you open the next ones and when?

At this point in time, we can only confirm locations at the Galeria stores in Konstanz, Duisburg, Freiburg, Trier and Kassel. 

Okay, but in addition to Galeria partnerships, what other store openings can we expect from Decathlon in Germany in 2025 or 2026?

New openings that we can already confirm: Frankfurter Zeil (March 28), Recklinghausen & Bochum (April 11), Stuttgart Königstraße (beginning of May), Frankfurt Hessen-Center (summer 2025), Gießen (mid-2025), Straubing (end of 2025), Breuningerland Ludwigsburg (end of 2025) and Leverkusen (end of 2025).

How much turnover are these stores expected to bring in together once they have opened?

Please understand that we do not comment on this.