Sport-Scheck is being re-positioned to offer a stronger image of technical competence, with more equipment, more functional clothing and more service, after a diversification into sports fashion that caused the German retailer to suffer sales declines in the past few years. The new image has already been implemented in the company’s flagship store in Munich and in Nuremberg, and it will be rolled out throughout the chain. A small new store in Munich’s Riem-Arkaden shopping center will be shut down at the end of August, like one recently in Ludwigshafen, leaving the company with 16 large stores of more than 1,500 square meters each. After the appointment of a new management, Sport-Scheck raised its sales by 0.7 percent to €264 million for the year ended last Feb. 28. The parent company, Otto Versand, saw its global sales rise by 1 percent to €14.57 million, generating an 11 percent higher pre-tax profit of €459 million, and this year should be much better. Revenues increased by 4.8 percent in the 1st quarter.