Media Room

06/2022

As ONE SPORT 2000 into the future of international sports retailing

The sports retail group closes the 2021 financial year with record sales of 5.3 billion euros and confirms its leading position in sports retail in the DACH region. The goal of the specialist sports retail group is to become more visible worldwide as ONE SPORT 2000. Synergies strengthen the entire sports retail group with regard to upcoming challenges such as digitalization and globalization. Roland Felder, Managing Director of the Swiss SPORT 2000 Organisation, was elected as a new member of the Supervisory Board.

Global trends such as digitalization or globalization and resulting changes such as new forms of customer behavior and increased competitive pressure are shaping the sports retail industry as never before. "Specialist sports retail must now gain speed and develop new approaches in order to remain successful in the future," Margit Gosau, CEO of SPORT 2000 International and SPORT 2000 GmbH, is convinced. The sports retail community is consistently pushing the clear goal of creating a uniform overall image of SPORT 2000 in all countries. "It is often important to break away from old patterns in order to realize the big picture. At SPORT 2000, we have recognized that we need to move even closer together as an international sports retail community in order to be perceived worldwide as ONE SPORT 2000. This is the only way we can master upcoming challenges together and successfully move into the future of sports retail," says Gosau, adding, "With the new, international "Welcome Home" campaign and the global claim "Home of Experts," we already took a first, important step toward ONE SPORT 2000 in May 2022. We are thus positioning ourselves in all SPORT 2000 countries with a uniform brand presence." Further projects are planned for 2022 and 2023 to unite SPORT 2000 across national borders.

Market leadership in the DACH region

SPORT 2000 International's business vision of being the market leader with a clear positioning in high-quality performance sports succeeded in three countries. SPORT 2000 Germany, SPORT 2000 Austria and the Swiss SPORT 2000 organization confirmed their leading positions in sports retailing during the past financial year. SPORT 2000 achieved gross retail sales of 4.087 billion Euros in the DACH region in 2021 with 1,454 partner companies and over 2,268 stores. Gosau cites the strategic focus of recent years, across the entire SPORT 2000 countries, as success factors: "The focus on cross-country collaborations, international cooperation with the industry, progressive expansion and specialization at the highest level, coupled with our human touch, has once again proven to be very successful in a very challenging market environment. This is a path that we are consistently expanding and developing on an international level," says Gosau.

SPORT 2000 International records sales growth of 22.5 percent

The sports retail community will look back on a challenging and at the same time very successful business year at this year's General Assembly in May 2022. After two digital General Assemblies in 2020 and 2021, this year's General Assembly was again held in presence in Mainhausen. With currently 3,556 locations in 25 countries, SPORT 2000 International generated gross retail sales of 5.3 billion euros in 2021. This corresponds to a sales growth of 22.5 percent. With HV Group as a new partner, SPORT 2000 International 2021 is also expanding its position in international sports retail. In Madagascar and Mauritius, the focus will be on building up quality specialist sports retail with a total of seven SPORT 2000 stores in the new SPORT 2000 Multicategory format.

ABSOLUTE: Specialization at the highest level

According to Gosau, one of the success factors is the clear focus on specialization. The establishment of the ABOLUTE specialization formats continues in international sports retail. In February 2022, the seventh ABSOLUTE RUN store already opened in Minden, Germany. The expansion of ABSOLUTE TEAMSPORT also continues to progress with two new openings in March 2022. There are now seven ABSOLUTE TEAMSPORT stores in Germany, two in Austria, two in the Netherlands and two in Belgium. SPORT 2000 is planning additional ABSOLUTE RUN and ABSOLUTE TEAMSPORT store openings in Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Hungary and Bulgaria later this year. "The rapid, international expansion confirms that ABSOLUTE FORMATS are the future of sports retailing," says Gosau, emphasizing the relevance of these global specialization concepts. 

Future Agenda: Digitization and POS Data

The last two years provided a real push for digitization in sports retail. Even during the global lockdowns and store closures, SPORT 2000 developed functional online solutions to link online and offline retail even more closely. According to Gosau, driving digitization further forward at SPORT 2000 is one of the most important agendas for the future: "Whether online or offline retail, both forms of distribution need strategic information management to work efficiently. This summer we will be launching a joint SPORT 2000 database, in which international POS data will be continuously updated and analyzed. This will enable us to react to trends and changes at an early stage and generate added value for our strategic partners," says Margit Gosau.

Roland Felder as new member of the supervisory board of SPORT 2000 International

The Managing Director of the Swiss SPORT 2000 organization, Roland Felder, was elected as a new member of the Supervisory Board of SPORT 2000 International at this year's General Assembly. He succeeds Hans-Hermann Deters, who is leaving the Supervisory Board after seven years. The Supervisory Board is composed as follows: Chairman Dr. Holger Schwarting, Austria; Vice Chairman Matthias Grevener, Germany; Marius Rovers, Netherlands; Jean-Louis Parent, France; Roland Felder, Switzerland.

SPORT 2000 International

SPORT 2000 International is the world's second largest trading organization of independent sports retailers with 3,556 stores in 25 countries. The sports retailer generated total sales of 5.3 billion Euro in 2021.

Press Contact:
Katharina Brunnmayr
katharina@impulskommunikation.at | Mobil: +43 676 9505311