Decathlon is the leader of the local sporting goods retail, with 27 brick and mortar stores and an online store, as well as a warehouse serving Romania, Greece and Bulgaria and an IT team working for 23 countries.
It has two partner plants making bicycles in Romania and seeks to develop this particular operation.
The French-held group is planning to make an investment in Timisoara along with a partner that manufacturers bicycles. The partner company should build the plant and Decathlon would be its only customer and sign a long-term deal to ensure activity of the production facility.
“We make about 800,000 bicycles in Romania and want to increase the number to 1.5 million units, which will mostly be exported, but also sold on the local market,” says Jean Francois Mace, Decathlon Romania CEO.
Decathlon seeks to build a new plant, which may also make parts. Its partner has been in talks with local banks for months now, it was close to securing loans but now talks are not easy anymore. It is about millions of euros in investments, local production to be exported, hiring, revenue for the government, so Decathlon hopes the funding will be received. The retailer will be the sole customer of the plant, Jean Francois Mace added.
The partner for the new plant, ZF has found, is Sport Mechanical Workshop in Timisoara, which is already assembling bicycles for Decathlon in another location. The total investment should amount to EUR30 million and create 750 jobs. The second partner making bicycles for Decathlon is Resita-based Nextcity.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)