Sport 2000 France has kicked off its retail expansion plans with the acquisition of five large stores outside Paris, all of them currently operating under the Shops Center banner. With a total surface of 7,000 square meters, the stores form the foundation of a network of company-owned stores that Sport 2000 France decided to build after it attracted new shareholders and funds last May.
The deal raised some eyebrows since the stores belonged to Michel Burckbuchler and his two children, Stéphane Burckbuchler and Anne Tanguy. The French retail entrepreneur helped establish Courir in the 1980s and later became one of the most influential members of Intersport. Toward the end of the ’90s, he launched Sport Leader, a secondary banner of Intersport France, but then broke away and renamed his stores as Shops Center, with a mix of sports, fashion and jeans brands.
The Shops Center stores fit neatly with the objectives set out by the French buying cooperative of Sport 2000 International when it obtained €40 million from the sale of a 37.4 percent stake in the company to Activa Capital, a French private equity fund, and another €60 million in bank loans. The business plan outlined at the time called for Sport 2000 to have between 25 and 30 company-owned stores by the end of 2009, noting that Sport 2000 France was under-represented in the suburbs of Paris.
Sport 2000 projects that the five stores purchased last week, at an unknown price, will generate sales of €20 million to €22 million within three years. Two of the stores will switch to the Sport 2000 concept from December, and the others will be revamped next Spring. The largest of the five stores, 2,000 square meters in Villebon, will also feature a cycling area called Mondovélo, the cycling banner of the buying group.
Sport 2000 France will publish more detailed plans for the expansion of its own retail network in September. It is targeting sales of more than €1.2 billion by 2012, adding retail sales of €350 million through company-owned stores and €890 million through the stores of affiliated members. In 2007, Sport 2000 France members reached sales of €580 million, up by 5.5 percent.
