Ambitious growth plans for Intersport

2 billion euro turnover in 2020

The sports chain, part of the French-Swiss Intersport, managed a 1.6 billion euro turnover in 2014, which is a 4 % like-for-like turnover growth and a 6 % turnover growth including new store openings. “Our ambition is clear: we want to surpass the 2 billion euro turnover mark and have a 20 % market share by 2020”, CEO Jacky Rihouet said. On top of the 25 store openings this year, he also has plans to renovate ten stores and increase the size of another 16 stores.

Intersport currently has a 16 % French market share, about half of what current market leader Decathlon (with a 3.2 billion euro turnover in 2014) manages. However, Intersport’s growth is faster than Decathlon’s: the group has successfully moved towards lower prices and larger stores for years.

Intersport is essentially a collaboration of national purchase alliances, which allows independent sporting stores as affiliate stores. In total, the group has some 5,500 stores in 43 countries worldwide and it claims to be number one in the sporting branch with a 10 billion euro turnover.