Raketsport, a chain of 13 Swedish sporting goods stores in Stockholm that means “Rocket Sport,” has caused a storm in the country’s industry by announcing that it is breaking away from Intersport Sverige after the Spring/Summer season The dissident group has developed an alternative shop concept, called Go, that will provide more exposure to international brands as well as second-tier Swedish brands.

The split has been widely greeted as a move toward more diversity in Swedish sports retailing, which is strongly dominated by three large retail players: Intersport, Team Sportia and Stadium. Some medium-sized Swedish brands have long been complaining that this prevented them from reaching consumers on a wider scale with a wider product range. A former small Swedish buying group, Sportringen, went bankrupt and was absorbed one year ago by a small integrated chain, Sportex, which is not yet a big factor in the market.

The departing Intersport members explained that they disapproved of the buying group’s tight grip on their stores’ offering. They were particularly unhappy about the obligation to carry a large proportion of Intersport’s private label products, preventing them from offering interesting ranges of new and upcoming brands. Industry officials feel that the oligopoly of the three leading retailers may be hampering the growth of the market, which flattened last year after ten years of unabated expansion, to reach sales of about 14.5 billion Swedish kronor (€1.57bn-$1.92 bn), according an estimate that we plan to validate with some market research.

Racketsports’ managers have no plans to woo other members. They argue that the Go concept will enable them to more efficiently compete with the increasing number of single-brand concept stores popping up in Stockholm and Gothenburg.

Raketsport’s departure leaves Intersport without any high-profile stores in the center of Sweden’s capital, although other retailers affiliated with Intersport have stores on the outsikrts of Stockholm. The move is said to be unrelated to the planned departure next June of Lars Samuelsson, head of Intersport Sverige, who is credited for lifting the retail members’ turnover to an estimated 3.2 billion SEK (€345m-$424m) last year.

Raketsport is a holding company formed in 1986 by four Swedish retail entrepreneurs. Gert Wehinger is in charge of finance and marketing. Göran Korduner, Dan Abrahamsson and Peter Edstrand handle purchasing.