Boyner, a Turkish chain of department stores that is regarded as the country’s leading sports account with sales of about €35 million, is set to launch a dedicated sporting goods banner under the name of Boyner Sports.
The first store will be opened in August with a surface of 1,300 square meters in the new shopping mall of Istinye, in Istanbul. It will be included into a Boyner department store but will have a separate entrance and a clearly distinct space. A second store of 1,600 sqm. will follow in Ankara in October, and two more should be added in 2008.
The further roll-out of this project, on which Boyner has been working for the last three years, will depend on the initial results and the opening of more shopping malls. Unlike the products featured in the sports sections in its regular department stores, those presented in the Boyner Sports stores will be organized by sports category. They will offer equipment for all sports but still include a large lifestyle section with denim and sneakers, in line with market demand in Turkey.
Boyner has 26 department stores around Turkey, including six franchises. Another 4 stores are meant to open over the next months – making it one of the two largest department store chains in Turkey, along with YKM. They are owned by the Boyner Group, which otherwise produces private labels and runs a chain of luxury stores. Sports make up about 10 percent of sales in the Boyner department stores and they rose by about 25 percent last year, much faster than the Turkish market.
Boyner also operates as the Turkish distributor for Chiemsee and Iguana. It became this summer the exclusive Turkish retailer for Jack Wolfskin.
