Sports Plc, the U.K.-based online retailer and brand owner, has launched an active search to acquire other companies, either other retailers or complementary brands. The search comes after several years of rapid growth for Sports Plc, which was launched 13 years ago and reached sales of about $40 million last year, up by 25 percent.
Sports Plc was established by Simon Millington, who previously owned Golf USA. It has its own operations near Birmingham in the U.K., in the U.S. and in Australia. Its retail business includes four stores operating under the Golf & Sports banner, three of them in the U.S. and one in Australia, but most of its sales go through the internet. Sports Plc's online store, thesportshq, delivers products to consumers all around Europe, with websites in six languages. About 600,000 orders were delivered around Europe from the company's U.K. distribution center last year.
Much of the offering on the website consists of brands that were launched or acquired by Sports Plc, focusing on golf and fitness, but with many other categories such as outdoor sports and cycling. Among its most high-profile acquisitions, Sports Plc bought Woodworm, the British cricket and golf brand, when it was in administration in 2008. It owns several golf brands, such as Forgan, Young Guns and Confidence Golf. They are mostly sold through thesportshq and other online retailers but Sports Plc also has some offline wholesale activities, such as a deal with Golftech in Austria to distribute its I-onics sports bands in several European countries.
The accumulation of brands has enabled Sports Plc to achieve economies of scale in product sourcing, sales, warehousing and distribution. Millington and his family, some of them involved in Sports Plc, are based in Hong Kong to take full advantage of sourcing opportunities. At the same time, Sports Plc continues to invest in marketing for its brands, for example as the kit supplier of the West Indies cricket team with Woodworm, and as the supplier of golf equipment for Ian Woosnam with Forgan.
Sports Plc is considering takeovers in almost any country and sports category, from cycling to skiing, football, fishing and more. When it comes to European retail acquisitions, the company is eager to consolidate its business in France, Spain and Germany, where it already has a strong presence through its own website and other online retail customers. Sports Plc might benefit most strongly from a fully owned operation in Germany, which has specific rules applying to online retailing.
