In 2017, the sports retail organization generated a total revenue of EUR 3.818 billion and gained a foothold in four new licensing countries | With its clear future strategy 2021, SPORT 2000 is intensifying its journey toward being an integrated, vertically oriented retail service organization | Supervisory board confirmed at the General Assembly
SPORT 2000 International, the second largest buying group in sports retail in Europe, looked back once again at a successful financial year at the Annual General Assembly in mid-May in Niedernberg/Aschaffenburg, Germany. With a current 4,154 stores in 25 countries, the specialist retail association generated a total revenue of EUR 3.818 billion, a slight increase compared to the previous year. “In 2017, we achieved many important goals on our way to becoming a successful, strong sports retail service organization, and are pleased about this satisfying increase in revenue,” said Margit Gosau, CEO of SPORT 2000 International. Variations from the revenues achieved in the last few years are attributable to changes to the license holders. In the past year, Gosau, the new CEO, achieved important milestones on the strategic agenda for the sports retail group. For example, under her leadership, important partners in new licensing markets—Spain, Belgium, the middle East and Hungary—joined forces with Europe’s second-largest sports retail group: . With numerous shops and the SPORT 2000 co-branding, they make an essential contribution to the visibility of the SPORT 2000 brand, thereby strengthening it. Cooperation with international sports brand partners was also intensified and developed. The clear target for cooperation with brand partners is to define meaningful synergies in the areas of brand positioning, marketing and assortment strategy, as well as to advance future topics together. “We are now entering the next phase of our future strategy 2021. The long-term aim is to make SPORT 2000 an integrated, vertically oriented retail service organization with strong decision- making capabilities and a strong consumer brand throughout Europe,” said Gosau.
On the way to being an integrated, vertically oriented retail service organization
The first steps toward becoming an integrated, vertically oriented retail service organization had already been taken in mid-2017. In addition to the still relevant strategic targets such as building up and expanding the brand consistently throughout Europe, and intensifying partnerships with sports brands, the sports retail organization is increasingly focusing on topics such as the development of new retail formats to strengthen specialist and generalist formats at SPORT 2000, a clear strategy for assortment design, the acquisition of POS information and a standardized omni-channel platform. “The consolidation of POS data at the international level has been strongly driven forward internally and will be very much the focus of the next few months. We see enormous future potential in transnational POS data collection to offer our retailers an even higher level of service in assortment strategy, and to convince consumers at the point of sale,” commented Gosau on the other promising success factor of POS data collection alongside quality, advice and service.
The topic of online presence is also right at the top of the agenda for Gosau. An omni-channel solution for SPORT 2000 retailers will be developed, which is to be implemented in the core markets in the next two years: “A holistic omni-channel solution presupposes that all retailers, national central warehouses and brand partners are connected. It’s a very complex project which will occupy us intensively in the near future, not least because of the different retail structures in the various countries”, Gosau added.
With successful expansions into new licensing markets, numerous strong partnerships have been forged. “With our international expansion, we have achieved great successes in 2017. For example, new licensing markets have been opened up, such as Spain, Belgium and Hungary. This means that we are currently represented in many important markets in Europe and even the Middle-East,” summarized Gosau, adding: “SPORT 2000 will continue its expansion drive in the future; we are open to strategic partnerships in Great Britain and Poland, in particular.”
Supervisory board confirmed
During the Annual General Assembly, Dr. Holger Schwarting, Director of SPORT 2000 International Austria, was reelected as Chairman of the Board of SPORT 2000 International. The supervisory board was confirmed and remained in its current configuration after the General Assembly: Chairman Dr.Holger Schwarting, Austria; Deputy Chairman Matthias Grevener, Germany; Dr. Heiner Olbrich, Germany; Marius Rovers, The Netherlands; Hans-Peter Rasmussen, Denmark; Jean-Louis Parent, France and Hans-Hermann Deters, Germany.
SPORT 2000 International
With 4,154 businesses in 25 countries, SPORT 2000 International is the second largest buying group of independent sports retailers in Europe, employing over 35,000 employees. In 2017, the sports retail company generated a total revenue of EUR 3.818 billion.
More information is available at: www.sport2000international.com
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