Recovering from its previous decade's woes, The Athlete's Foot raised its retail sales by 7.5 percent to around €290 million in 2014, the first year that the banner was fully under the control of Intersport International Corp. The growth was a little smaller in terms of dollars and other local currencies.
Ingmar Kraak, chief executive of TAF, attributes the good performance to the clearer positioning of the banner in sport lifestyle, supported by a new brand and store concept and through stronger “credibility” that the banner has started to obtain in the industry with Intersport's backing. Furthermore TAF is taking advantage of the increased demand for sneakers as a fashion item around the world – a trend that is also benefiting other large international players such as Foot Locker and JD.
The number of Athlete's Foot stores was practically flat in 2014, rising overall from 392 to 393 in the course of the year. TAF completed the clean-up of its store network in the U.S., which was further trimmed down to around 50 outlets following the shutdown of more than 20 locations in line with a singular focus on sport lifestyle. In 2014 TAF pulled out of the Dominican Republic and Saudi Arabia, but entered the Netherlands with the first two Athlete's Foot stores.
As reported, members of Euretco in the Netherlands have agreed to convert their 50 Coach stores to the TAF banner and format in March of this year. TAF has now a presence in 25 countries. It will enter the markets of Bolivia, Greece and Turkey in the first half of 2015 through new master franchise agreements. Additional TAF stores are slated to open in Denmark and other Nordic countries. Discussions are taking place with Intersport national organizations in various parts of Europe about their adoption of the TAF banner.
Anyhow, another big increase in TAF's global retail turnover is expected for this year thanks to the expansion of the retail network in Europe and other parts of the world and the introduction of more focused product ranges from the key brands in sport lifestyle – different to those sold in Intersport stores – following the signature of agreements with all the major vendors. It should help to pull IIC's total annual retail turnover closer to a new overall target of €11 billion, sooner or later.
In another interesting new initiative, TAF is about to launch a social media project and an omni-channel retail strategy. No details could be obtained at this stage.
