The small and medium brands have won market share from the big players in the Swedish wholesale sporting goods market, which grew last year by an average 8.4 percent according to Sportfack, the Swedish trade magazine.
At the retail level Naturkompaniet, the specialist in outdoor products, delivered record results in 2007, growing three times the rate of the market, which increased by 7.6 percent to 17 billion Swedish kronor (€1.82b-$2.83b) during the year. The turnover of this Swedish outdoor retailer, which is owned by the Fenix Outdoor group, grew by 21.8 percent to SEK 274 million (€29.3m-$45.5m) from its 24 outlets, two of which were opened in the past year.
Taking over a chain of Go stores in Stockholm and opening several of its own stores helped Intersport remain firmly in second place with revenues that grew by 10.5 percent to SEK 3.3 billion (€353.5m-$548.5m). The 15 new Intersport stores, which were not all up and running in the year, brought the buying group’s total store count to 145 in 2007 but pushed growth of sales down by 0.9 percent on a comparable store basis. Intersport has a 20 percent share of the Swedish sporting goods market.
Team Sportia came third in the rankings, with 8.7 percent growth in sales to SEK 2.2 billion (€235.7m-$365.6m), despite having shut down several stores last year. It has a 13 percent share of the market. Just4Sport is a new player on the market and upped its store count from 59 to 72 during the year. The group is made up essentially of small sport stores and its turnover grew by 12.3 percent to SEK 210 million (€22.5m-$34.9m) compared with the previous year’s results.
Other specialist retail chains worth mentioning are the Golf Store Group, which had 108 pro shops in 2007 (open only from May to September) and a 4 percent higher turnover of SEK 310 million (€33.2m-$51.5m) in the period.
On the wholesale front, Sportfack found that an important share of the market shifted over to smaller vendors during 2007. While the biggest 25 suppliers grew their sales by 7.8 percent the top 100 vendors raised their sales by 10.7 percent to SEK 9.5 billion (€1.017b-$1.579b). In the second group there are many smaller-sized companies such as Didriksons, GSL Konfektion – owned by the tennis player Magnus Gustafsson and distributing brands such as Lotto and Fred Perry – Renew Group and Skate Out. The 25 smallest suppliers on the market saw their sales grow by an even higher 14.9 percent during the period. Over the last two years 10 small companies increased sales by at least 75 percent: GSL Konfektion foremost at 159 percent and Didriksons second best at 129 percent.
Adidas is confirmed as the No. 1 brand in Sweden and its sales at the wholesale level grew at market pace to SEK 633 million (€67.8m-$105.2m). Nike’s sales grew faster, at 16.9 percent to a record SEK 552 million (€59.1m-$91.7m). ECCO came in third among the major brands, with sales up by 29.2 percent to SEK 447 million (€47.9m-$74.3m), including all its footwear sales in the country. Puma Nordic came fourth, but Peak Performance was not far behind with the highest sales for a Swedish brand, up by 11.9 percent to SEK 367 million (€39.3m-$61.0m) during the period.
At the retail level the chains did better than the independent stores on the market, with sales that grew at an average rate of 9.5 percent, several percentage points higher than the market rate of 7.6 percent. The number of chain stores has grown to 647 in the country. Stadium remains firmly in place as Sweden’s No. 1 retail chain for sporting goods with its four store concepts: Stadium Ski, Stadium Golf, Stadium XXL and Sports Outlet. It had 94 stores in 2007 and a 24 percent share of the market. Due to seven new stores openings during the period it achieved 9.7 percent sales growth to SEK 4.1 billion (€439.2m-$681.4m). On a comparable store basis growth was 1.5 percent year-on-year for the group.
As far as Swedish exports are concerned, Didriksons, Tretorn, Swedish Fitness and Ullfrotté did well in the period, increasing their exports by over 50 percent, respectively. Peak Performance made record sales outside Sweden, growing its exports by 35 percent to SEK 636 million (€68.1m-$105.7m), making it the No. 1 Swedish exporting brand in front of Fenix Outdoor.
