United Brands, the Belgian sports retailer, estimates that its sales will increase by about 14 percent to more than €37.5 million for the full year until the end of April. The rise was chiefly driven by UB's two-year-old partnership with the Belgian national football team.
The shift in the company's concept from an action and winter sports specialist to a wider performance sports retailer came after several warm winters eroded UB's sales of winter sports products and after it obtained a license for the Kappa brand in Belgium two years ago. The retailer's deal with the Belgian football federation came just at a time when the Red Devils were regaining strength. They reached the quarter finals at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, after failing to qualify for the final rounds of the two previous tournaments.
Marc Piessens, the owner and general manager of United Brands, said that football made up about half of the sales increase for the fiscal year about to end. The partnership with the federation allows UB to run the federation's online store (delivering to private customers only) as well as mobile stores at stadiums during national team games and at events organized by the federation. UB is authorized to sell jerseys and additional merchandise such as mugs featuring the faces of the players.
On top of that, United Brands sold national team jerseys in four pop-up stores during the World Cup. Piessens estimates that UB sold about 60 percent of the Belgian team's replica shirts last year. After the World Cup the team's endorsement deal with Burrda was taken over by Adidas. Apart from its much improved performance, the team has gained exposure through a few Belgian players in top English, German and Italian football leagues, such as Eden Hazard and Vincent Kompany.
United Brands is also multiplying its retail partnerships with local Belgian football clubs. It has long had a relationship with KV Mechelen, allowing UB to run merchandising sales at the club's stadium. Similar agreements are to start in June with Standard de Liège, Waasland-Beveren and STVV (Sint-Truiden).
The retailer enjoyed sales increases for several other performance sports products, from running to swimming and fitness, as well as other types of sports footwear. While footwear previously made only about 15 percent of its turnover, the proportion is set to increase to more than 30 percent next year.
The sales increases in these categories were mitigated by a small decline in sales of winter sports products and the closure of two unprofitable stores: the United Brands store in Aalst and another store in Antwerp trading as UBX, a secondary concept focusing on action sports. The UBX store in Gent switched to United Brands and another store in Kortrijk moved to a better location in the same town.
This marks the end of the UBX skate and surf concept that United Brands launched a few years ago. Instead, the company has adopted another concept for two stores trading on smaller surfaces of about 500 square meters and without surf products. It wants to open more of such stores in top-end locations from next year.
At the same time, United Brands is preparing to expand across Belgium again. A few years ago it shuttered stores in the French-speaking provinces of Wallonia to focus entirely on Flanders, but before the end of 2016 it intends to open stores again in Brussels and in Wallonia.
On the back of all these investments, United Brands predicts that it could inflate its sales by more than 20 percent for the fiscal year starting from the beginning of May – in the run-up to the European football championships.
