Both of Germany’s largest buying groups ended the half-year with only a small decline in their turnover, as a disastrous business with winter sports products was offset by expanding sales in nearly all other categories, thanks in part to extremely mild weather between the months of February and May. Winter sports sales dropped by as much as 40 percent at Intersport stores in Germany, leading to an overall sales hit of 22 percent in January.
Intersport stores in Germany ended the half year with a single-digit sales decline, which was not spelled out at the company’s usual press conference at the ISPO show in Munich. A decline was predicted when compared to last year’s pre-World Cup business, but it was higher than expected. The level of unsold inventories prompted Intersport Deutschland to launch a campaign for close-out merchandise, offering 60 percent price reductions Orders for some winter products were halved. However, this sharp drop was partly compensated by an 11 percent sales increase for outdoor products and a 17 percent sales hike for beachwear. “Funwheel” items such as inline skates and racquet sports reversed the trend of the previous years, posting increases of 10 and 11 percent, respectively. Football sales dropped by 17 percent, but sales of football boots were up by 2 percent.
Sport 2000 stores in Germany and Switzerland saw their sales dip by 2.5 percent for the first six months of this year, as robust Spring sales partly offset a sales decline of 15.1 percent in January. Orders by Sport 2000 stores to the central organization in Germany dropped by 6.1 percent in the first 5 months of the year. On the other hand, for the first six months, centralized purchasing rose by 14.6 percent in France and by 48 percent in Switzerland. Sport 2000 has recruited 54 new retail members in Switzerland, where it still targets 80 members by the end of the year.
For its part, Sport 2000 International is striving to improve its profit levels by introducing penalties for members who fail to order a certain minimum amount of private label products. Shareholders of the international buying group decided at its general assembly in Slovenia last May that licensees who fail to order this minimum level will still have to pay to the central organization the commission that they would have had to disburse if they had ordered the required level.
Furthermore, the German, Dutch, Norwegian, French and Austrian licensees have decided to work more tightly together on issues such as logistics and information technology. They will convene to discuss their plans at the end of this month, taking the lead in operational improvements that should be rolled out to other countries at a later stage.
Meanwhile Intersport Deutschland is pushing its outdoor retail format, Intersport Adventure. After the first Intersport Adventure had to close in Düsseldorf earlier this year and an other opened at the same time in Kleve, close to the Dutch border, a new one will open by the end of October in the South of the country. Sport Räpple, a local hero in the Stuttgart area will open an Intersport Adventure store in Tübingen with a sales surface well beyond 1,200 square meters.
Outdoor-Profis, the group of specialized outdoor retailers within the German Sport 2000, increased its turnover last year by 25 percent to €30 million after VAT, with a double-digit increase on a same-store basis. The number of affiliated members increased by 9 to 73, explaining part of the increase.
