Austria’s third-largest sports retailer is closing 17 stores and has already sold its entire international network, all within five months of a private equity-backed ownership change.
After 15 consecutive months of losses, Hervis, Austria’s specialist sports retail chain, announced on June 11 that it will close 17 of its 93 domestic stores throughout 2026. The move, affecting about 100 employees, amounts to roughly one in five locations. Two sites in Salzburg and Baden have already shut. The remaining 15 will close on a rolling basis as lease termination windows open.
The decision follows a sharper move in April: the sale of Hervis’s entire international portfolio – 43 stores across Slovenia, Croatia and Germany – to an unnamed investor, who assumed operational control effective immediately. Taken together, the two transactions mark a rapid and near-total geographic retreat. Within five months of the ownership transfer, Hervis has gone from roughly 134 stores across four countries to a sub-80-store Austrian business.
The new owners are not sports retail veterans
Sven Voth, co-founder of German sneaker chain Snipes, and Udo Schloemer, founder of the Factory Berlin startup campus, acquired Hervis from the Spar grocery group via their jointly held Quantum Investment Holding GmbH at the start of 2026. Spar had carried Hervis as a loss-making subsidiary for years before deciding to divest. In 2023 and 2024 combined, Hervis accumulated losses exceeding 100 million euros, while revenue slipped from €261 million to €253 million. No 2025 figures have been published.
The closure list concentrates on smaller Alpine market towns (Kitzbühel, Hallein, Reutte, Bischofshofen, Lienz) alongside provincial centers including Steyr, Wels, Leoben and Linz. The Q19 Vienna location is also on the list. What remains after the closures will be a leaner network weighted toward Austria’s larger urban catchments.
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The restructuring plays out against a prolonged structural reset in Austrian sports retail that predates both the pandemic boom and the post-boom correction. The Graz-based outdoor specialist Northland collapsed into insolvency in spring 2022. The Sport-2000 cooperative Zentrasport, which supplied independent dealers, filed for insolvency in mid-2023 and was subsequently absorbed by the German ANWR Group. Norwegian big-box operator XXL exited Austria entirely at the end of 2023. Gigasport closed four of its 14 stores in early 2025.
Businesses that scaled into Austria during the 2020–2021 post-lockdown spending surge found themselves holding excess inventory and overextended lease commitments when consumer demand softened under inflation pressure.
Hervis is the largest and latest casualty of that correction.
