The high demand for items for team sports and the ongoing outdoor trend brought the Intersport trading association more sales in the past financial year. “Given the general conditions with a multi-crisis environment, we are really satisfied. We are currently expecting growth of more than five percent,” said Intersport boss Alexander von Preen, who is responsible for Germany, to the German Press Agency in Heilbronn.
The Intersport boss did not provide any information about the result. It is too early for that. The trading association’s financial year does not correspond to the calendar year, but runs from the beginning of October to the end of September of the following year. Intersport’s German headquarters plans to comment on the exact figures for the 2022/23 financial year at the end of January.
As a result, the growth was not evenly distributed: the team sports segment went through the roof after Corona, said von Preen. Products for outdoor and running sports also sold well in the past financial year. The pandemic trend of inline skating, for example, was “a catastrophe”.
With the growth, Intersport achieved the goals it had set for itself. By 2030, the association wants to increase its sales in Germany to around six billion euros – and thus to a market share of a good 30 percent. Intersport is therefore targeting an average growth of more than five percent per year by 2026.
The expansion should succeed, among other things, through better networking between stores and online retail as well as the modernization of existing stores. New openings are also part of the strategy: by 2030 there should be more than 100 new Intersport stores nationwide.
“The sports industry is growing and is attractive, but that is a huge challenge,” said von Preen. The reasons for this include the age structure of current dealers and a declining willingness to become self-employed in Germany. Therefore, an initiative was launched to promote business start-ups. The aim of the “Self-employed with Intersport” program is to prepare applicants flexibly for taking over their own branch. This applies to experienced professionals from the retail sector as well as career changers and university graduates.
Across Germany, around 1,700 stores are organized cooperatively in the trading association. More than 400 of them also operate under the name Intersport. In the 2021/22 financial year, the approximately 800 retailers generated sales of around 3.3 billion euros. (dpa)