Following a pattern similar to the recent action taken in Norway, where sporting goods vendors and retailers have banded together to form a single umbrella organization (see SGI Europe #3 of Jan. 28), the 50-odd members of SPOFA, the Swedish sporting goods industry association, have invited the major Swedish chains and buying groups to become members as well to pursue the common aim of stimulating consumer purchases of their products.
To this end, SPOFA has changed its name to Sportforum. The association is still run by Klas Elm as chief executive, and the chairman is still Christer Jansheden. None of the retailers have yet signed up for membership, but big players like Stadium are described as being positive about Sportforum’s new projects.
Sportforum is planning to involve suppliers and retailers in a big public relations and media campaign this year to promote exercise and a healthy lifestyle. In addition to organizing events and TV programs, it wants to persuade the contenders in next September’s legislative elections in Sweden to take a stance in favor of sports through tax incentives, changes in the school curriculum, the promotion of safe cycling, the construction of new football fields and other such actions. The FIFA World Cup should provide a major opportunity to associate them and other parties in the campaign.
The larger Swedish trade association wants to act also as an information bank to collect market statistics and as a single lobbying organization for relations with national and international institutions. It wants to work with Intersport and other retailers to organize more widely attended national trade fairs.
The establishment of Sportforum takes place just as the statistics show that the number of registered golfers in Sweden declined for the first time in 2005 to 508,293, as compared to 604,466, after many years of unparalleled growth. Sweden remains a country where golf has very strong market penetration, considering that the country’s total population amounts to only 8.9 million people.
