Despite several major sporting events, the Intersport dealer association is also feeling the effects of the weak consumer mood.
“We are confident that we will achieve plus-minus zero sales. “But that depends a bit on how the last quarter went,” said Intersport boss Alexander von Preen to the German Press Agency. Anything between minus 1.5 and plus 1.5 percent is possible in the 2023/24 financial year.
Like many retail companies, Intersport’s financial year lasts from the beginning of October to the end of September. The Heilbronn-based company plans to present the final figures at the end of January.
Intersport: A lot of headwind in the market
The ongoing outdoor trend and the strong demand for sports fashion are still clearly visible in the figures. Business with items for team sports is also going well. However, there was a lot of headwind in the market. People’s budgets are limited, among other things, by inflation. In addition, the insolvencies of Tennis-Point and SportScheck would have had to be compensated. “We come from fantastic previous years. Now there has been a consolidation,” said von Preen.
According to its own information, Intersport is Germany’s largest sports retailer group. In the 2023/24 financial year, it included around 700 retailers nationwide with more than 1,400 stores. More than 400 of them also operate under the name Intersport. By 2030, the association wants to increase its sales from around 3.5 billion euros to around six billion euros – and thus to an expected market share of a good 30 percent.
Expansion until 2030
To achieve this, Intersport is expanding: at least 100 new stores are expected to be added in Germany by 2030. There were 19 new openings in the last financial year. “We planned on average 12 to 15 a year. We are expanding fully according to plan under our Intersport brand: by the end of the current financial year we will have achieved around 50 percent of our goal by 2030,” said von Preen.
In the next few years, the aim is to focus on cities with white spots in the sports retail sector. There are further ideas and concepts for this. “We have tough competition. If we want to expand our lead even further, then we have to grow by more than five percent per year. I expect this to happen in the current financial year as well,” emphasized von Preen.
The sports retail market in Germany is worth billions – and is competitive. It was only in November that the French company Decathlon announced that it wanted to expand its business in Germany. More than 60 new stores are expected to be created by 2027. Many of them are smaller than the previous stores and in city center locations. The Sport 2000 purchasing group is also currently opening new stores. Especially those that specialize in team sports, for example. (dpa)