In the first half of the fiscal year ended last Feb. 28, Sport Eybl & Sports Experts AG generated a double-digit increase in revenue. The target for the full year is to register an increase of 3 percent over the previous year. The compay’s chief executive, Peter Wahle, credited the sales gain to a much snowier winter than the last few, as well as an increased awareness of the importance of wearing helmets.
About one-fifth of the approximately 500,000 helmets that were sold in the current winter season in Austria were bought in Sport Eybl & Sports Experts stores. This is about double the sales of previous years, and reflects the overall helmet market. Helmets made up 10 percent to 15 percent of total turnover of the winter business for Sport Eybl & Sports Experts. Demand was strong for all protective products this winter. Ski and snowboard apparel also did well, as well as skates and gear for ski touring.
Sport Eybl & Sports Experts is the leading sporting goods dealer in Austria with a current market share of 27 percent. It has 47 locations, including 10 Eybl Megastores, 12 Intersport Eybl stores, 21 Sports Experts stores and four Snipes streetwear stores all over Austria.
A 3 percent increase for the full year would give the company total sales of about €380 million. The last year was dedicated to realigning Sport Eybl as a premium distributor and Sports Experts as a price leader. At the market researcher Marketagent.com, Intersport Eybl leads the ranking of awareness and image with 32.1 percent, in first place in Austria for the second year in a row. Much of the success is based of the quality of the sales advice of employees who are athletes themselves, some even top athletes.
Two more Sport Experts store openings are planned for this year in Austria: One in Vöcklabruck, Upper Austria, in May and another one in September, location not yet announced. The company invests 20-30 percent of the annual revenue for the expansion and restructuring of the stores. Further openings are also planned for the coming year in Austria.
The company is also ready to expand into Eastern Europe, but is holding off because of the economic situation. It is currently looking at a further commitment in Germany, but for now the only location, in Regensburg, is to continue.
Sport Eybl’s growth rate in outdoor and mountain sports has been in the double digits for more than 10 years, driven largely by its 1-year-old brand, Seven Summits, which graces gear for outdoor, mountaineering, skiing and snowboard. For the coming summer season the company expects strength in climbing, slacklining (a kind of bouncier tightrope walking) and biking, especially from electric bicycles.
