According to a recent survey of 1,187 Spanish industry professionals conducted by CMDsport, the general sense in the national sporting goods industry is that the market will return to its pre-crisis level sometime between September 2020 and March 2021. But uncertainty reigns. The projections listed in the questionnaire ran from September 2020 to anytime in 2023, and none drew a majority.
Large numbers of gym operators (21%) and suppliers (33%) picked March 2021 as the probable month for the recovery, whereas a plurality of retailers (20%) opted for September of this year. Extrapolating the data, majorities in all three categories (62% of gym professionals, 52% of retailers, 66% of suppliers) placed the date no later than March 2021.
There was greater clarity on the matter of post-crisis exercising. Most gym operators (54%), retailers (53%) and suppliers (62%) agree that sports participation will return to pre-crisis levels, and 36 percent, 37 percent and 33 percent, respectively, believe that it will increase.
The clearest majorities emerged among suppliers when they were asked about required service levels after the Covid-19 pandemic. Some 72 percent believe they will need to provide more services, and 74 percent believe those services will have to differ from past practices. In the survey’s sample of professionals, 40 percent were sporting goods retailers, 39 percent were gym operators and the remaining 21 percent were suppliers. CMDsport published its results on April 8.
