Sport 2000 Germany is reorganizing itself in a bid to further internationalize its operations, in line with market trends. Under the new structure, a team of three executives will lead the German buying group. They will be in charge of the operations of Sport 2000 in the Swiss, German and the Benelux markets, which are all under the control of the ANWR Group. In tune with this, the retail organization changed its name from Sport 2000 Deutschland to just Sport 2000 GmbH on Oct. 1.
The trio of Hans-Hermann-Deters, Margit Gosau and Markus Hupach will lead the enlarged group. Their appointment follows a decision announced in July by one of Sport 2000 Germany's two general managers, Andreas Rudolf, not to extend his contract after its scheduled termination on June 30, 2020. He resigned from the operational management of the group last Monday after 13 years of service. Deters was the other general manager.
Deters has a long history in the sporting goods market, including the management of Reebok in Central Europe and of Kettler Sport. He has been a managing director of Sport 2000 Germany since 2014, and he has been responsible in particular for the development of specialty retailing concepts in the running, outdoor, team sports and sneaker areas, as well as online retailing. For a while, he was also in charge of Sport 2000 International, the umbrella organization of which Sport 2000 Germany has been the largest licensee.
Gosau has been running Sport 2000 International since 2017, helping it to introduce category management and to enter new markets. In her future dual role, she will continue to drive its internationalization while taking on additional tasks for the German-based Sport 2000.
Both Deters and Gosau are expected to give a stronger European focus to the new buying group. They were joined on Oct. 1 by Markus Hupach, 48, who previously served as vice president of sales for the EMEA region at Asics.
According to ANWR, a core task of the new management team will be to support the internationalization of Sport 2000 with particular attention to the needs of the consumer, whose behavior is changing rapidly. It also intends to expand the cooperation with the brands internationally and at the local level.
Sport 2000 International federates more than 2,200 independent dealers and more than 3,500 stores. It achieved a turnover of approximately €3.94 billion in 2018. Sport 2000 Germany is the largest entity within the group at a country level with over 1,000 independent retailers and 1,400 specialist sports shops, reaching annual retail sales of € 2.02 billion.
The retailers affiliated with Sport 2000 in the Netherlands and Belgium had sales of €123.5 million and €54.4 million last year. The ANWR Group has a turnover of €9.5 billion, employs 1,400 people and counts about 5,000 affiliated retail companies in the sporting goods, footwear and leathergoods sectors.
