The Italian buying group for sporting goods enlarges its footprint by opening itself up to retail members from the shoe trade, creating wider economies of scale. The new initiative is being led by Massimo Donda, an important shoe retailer in Trieste who runs Federcalzatura, the Italian shoe retailers’ federation.
Run by Fabio Pelosi, Sport Alliance is the successor of Selezione Sport, which was formerly linked with Sport 2000 International. Its initiative replicates in a way the successful format of Ariston-Nord-West-Ring, the German buying group that owns Sport 2000 Deutschland as well as ANWR Schuh, one of the two major footwear buying groups in Germany.
Sport Alliance organized a first buying day for Italian shoe retailers this past Monday. A first nucleus of 45 retailers who own 146 shoe shops showed, joining 45 other members of the group. They started off by placing big orders from major sports shoe brands at interesting discounts. Less sporty shoe brands should join the pack soon.
A total of 268 shoe shops have joined the group, but not all of them participated in the event. Another 89 doors are under discussion.
Sport Alliance has been widening its activities lately also by boosting its own wholesale business. After signing a deal to represent Gramicci in Italy on an exclusive basis, it has signed similar exclusive contracts for the Italian market with Driz-a-Bone apparel from Australia and BH fitness equipment from Spain. Sport Alliance is also the exclusive marketer in Italy of Besson, the Italian brand of skiwear that has now fallen under Austrian control (see article further down).
Dominated by two big Italian sporting goods retail chains, Sportler and Sportland, Sport Alliance represented a total of 280 sporting goods stores at the end of February, including 25 that joined the group in the past year. They had total revenues of €420 million in 2007.
