SportScheck, Germany’s largest specialty sports retailer, reached sales of €296.2 million in 2007, or 2.2 percent more than in the year before. The increase was basically due to the increase of VAT by 3 percentage points in Germany by January 2007. Stefan Herzog, Scheck’s managing director argued that the German sporting goods is keeping very much stable at an annual level of around €7.7 billion. Therefore, Herzog’s strategy is to optimize the existing doors in Germany and to internationalize the mail-order business.
To optimize the brick-and-mortar business, Scheck recently closed two outlets in Chemnitz/Saxony and Saarbrücken/Saarland, which had been underperforming. The chain now counts 14 outlets. The stores have a total surface of altogether 38,000 square meters which receive some 17 million visitors per annum. The largest store is at the headquarters in Munich with 4,500 square meters, followed by the outlets in Essen (Northrhine-Westphalia) and Stuttgart. The smallest one is located in Wolfsburg/Lower Saxony, the «Volkswagen town,» with a net surface of 1,400 square meters.
Herzog hinted to SGI Europe that the focus is now on investing in the more successful existing mega-stores, starting with the original flagship in downtown Munich, and the expansion of the mail-order business outside Germany and neighbouring Switzerland and Austria. SportScheck already went into Russia last year with some sales backed by the parent company Otto.
Scheck is now serious about conquering the Russian market by releasing a catalog in the Russian language in 2009. The company is determined to move fast forward in the internet business outside the German-speaking countries. Russia is here the main target.
Scheck is also pulling out from sports-inspired fashion and going back to technical apparel and equipment. The company is stressing the new corporate claim "Wir machen Sport – We make sports."
SportScheck was founded by Otto Scheck in Munich in 1946. His son Klaus sold the company in 1988 partially to the Otto Group, and in 1991, entirely to the Hamburg-based mail-order retailer, which is also Germany’s largest player in the online retail business. sportscheck.com enjoys today more than 350 million page impressions per year.
