Sport 2000 International launched today its own website under sport2000.com to convey its message as a retailer “for the sports lovers.” Behind the scenes, the international voluntary group is aiming to make better use of the data, the experience and the resources of the affiliated national retail organizations to improve product selection and the shopping experience, working together with many sports brands.
Margit Grosau, chief executive of Sport 2000 International, indicated that the group's focus is now more on transnational cooperation on these and other points rather than on international expansion, although it is about to announce its entry into Greece, after its moves into Spain and Hungary in 2017. It has stopped looking for a master franchisee in Poland, but it is looking for new partners in the U.K., Ireland and Norway following the recent pull-out of Sports Direct International, Elverys and MX Sport.
Excluding these three companies, Sport 2000 International had a total of 3,555 stores in 23 countries at the end of 2018, 124 more than a year earlier. Their retail sales before VAT grew by 2.1 percent in the past year – a little faster than in 2017 and than the retail turnover of the group's big rival, Intersport International. The members' retail sales reached a level of nearly €3.9 billion last year, compared with €3.81 billion in 2017 (the company had erroneously given us a figure of €3.18 billion a year ago).
For Sport 2000 International, one of the priorities now is to put together a new generalist store concept, which is nearly finalized on paper. It was presented at the group's annual meeting in Frankfurt last month, and is roughly scheduled to be implemented during the autumn/winter 2020/21 season. Grosau indicated that it will privilege the “human touch” in all the aspects of consumer's journey, including the sales personnel, to enhance the shopping experience and to connect consumers with sports – through Sport 2000. The brands will be invited to participate in the concept for the launch of new products and experiences.
After a year's work on the project, a prototype of a test store is being developed at an undisclosed location with the input of experts from various countries who will meet on July 1 to draw up a floorplan and to formulate suggestions for the assortment of products for each category for the spring/summer 2020 season.
The new generalist store project follows the already-reported cooperative development of the more specialist Absolute concept, which was first launched last September in the team sports sector and then in April in the running segment – in both cases in Germany. Sport 2000 wants to analyze and refine the concept before expanding the two formats to other countries and before applying the concept to the outdoor and fitness segments, probably in other countries in the course of 2020.
Without disclosing the details, Grosau said she is planning to organize international working groups on four other topics later this year.
