New owner for ailing Foot Locker

Sports retailer Dick’s Sporting Goods wants to take over its ailing competitor Foot Locker, which is struggling with disappointing figures and impending import tariffs.

Cost advantages

Rumours about a possible deal had been circulating for a while, and on Thursday they were officially confirmed: Dick’s Sporting Goods, the largest sports retail chain in the United States, will pay 2.4 billion dollars (2.1 billion euros) to take over Foot Locker. The trainer chain has nearly 2,400 shops in 22 countries, and sales of eight billion dollars. The takeover, which will be completed in the second half of the year, should bring major cost benefits, but Foot Locker will continue to operate under its own brand name, says the new owner.

The deal comes at a difficult time for Foot Locker: the retailer has seen sales fall in recent years and is feeling the threat of possible import tariffs, as most of its trainers are produced in China and Vietnam. The company is working on a strategic plan to rejuvenate the brand, introducing a new store concept that should boost those ambitions. After New Jersey and Paris, that ‘Reimagined’ store concept also recently expanded to the Benelux, in shopping centre Hoog Catharijne in Utrecht.