Sport-Achat continues to be a strong trade show in France for pure sporting goods brands, but its latest session suffered a 14 percent decrease in attendance to a total of 1,390 visitors. It is not clear whether this may have been partly due to the organizers' decision to hold the show two weeks earlier than usual, on Aug. 29 and 30. Sport-guide.com feels that this may have been partly due to an estimated 10 percent drop in French sporting goods retailers' sales in July and August, as compared to one year ago, after a 5 percent increase for the first six months of the year. Earlier end-of-season sales promotions and bad weather in August may have been the main causes for this decline.

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