In 2018, the Russian regional sporting goods retailer Champion closed one of its biggest stores in the country as the expectations about the future of the domestic market remained rather gloomy.
In total, Champion operated 27 stores from Samara in the Volga federal district to Krasnoyarsk in Siberia at the end of last year. The company is not present in the other parts of the country, including the Central federal district in and around Moscow.
In the Volga federal district and Siberia the local customers spend on average from Rub 2,000 (€26-$29) to Rub 5,000 (€64-$72) on sporting goods per year. This is significantly less than in Moscow or other big cities in the European part of Russia.
Champion has closed a store in the city of Ufa and basically ceased adding new doors, as it had before, to avoid a drop in profit margins.
Basically, the management indicates that the situation is far from perfect, as rental costs are growing every year, while the flow of visitors has been falling.
One of the problems, according to the management, is that 80 percent of customers in the medium segment of the sporting goods market purchase counterfeit goods.
Another problem for Champion is the increase in online sales in the country, but the main competitor is Decathlon, as both companies operate in the same market segment.
