Next year will be a year of analyzing and restructuring the network based on store performance.
“We are now operating 27 brick and mortar stores and an online store, after having opened our 27th in Ramnicu Valcea on December 5. We added two Intersport stores in 2014, one in Bucharest- Piata Unirii and one in Ramnicu Valcea in River Plaza Mall,” says Antoniu Nituleasa, country manager of Intersport since the spring of 2014. He had previously served as chief operating officer with the company after having spent more than a decade working for modern retailers like Rewe Romania, Real and Kaufland.
Only two of the 27 mortar and bricks stores operate in street front locations and both of them are in Bucharest. The policy of going to shopping centers and malls is not something that only Intersport has, but its rivals, Hervis and Decathlon, too, which choose to open stores in malls and retail parks.
Only Adidas and Nike (Elmec) tried street front locations, such as an Adidas store in Bucharest’s Old Town, but they, too, prefer malls.
Intersport, which is available in Romania via Greece’s Fourlis Group, returned to Piata Unirii three and a half years after vacating a space across the street from Unirea Shopping Center, which Raiffeisen Bank moved into. The new Intersport store operates in a space formerly occupied by Raiffeisen Bank, so the two actually traded places, and the former is now next to Cocor store.
“As far as we are concerned, Piata Unirii is the number one street front shopping location in Romania. We are aware of the potential of the area, partly because of the fact that the store we had to close at the end of 2010 had been very good in terms of revenue.”
A store in the area, Nituleasa said, ensures excellent visibility for a brand.
“Finding a space in the Piata Unirii area had been on our priority list for a while, but the rent level prevented us from completing this project sooner.”
The retail area of the store is 500 square meters distributed over two floors. Under the circumstances, rent in the area remains one of the highest, estimated at EUR30/square meter/month by ZF.
The strong points of the area, Antoniu Nituleasa says, include the high pedestrian traffic during weekdays, the visibility of Piata Unirii and Piata Universitatii areas (the new Intersport store is located between the two and closer to the former), the proximity of the Cocor store and Unirea Shopping Center and of the Old Town.
“Another advantage is that the area is becoming a destination for sporting goods and especially outdoor products shopping, with Himalaya and Salomon stores, as well as a number of smaller retailers, already there.”
Bucharest is the most important city on Intersport’s map, where it operates seven stores. Fourlis Group expanded to the main cities of the country, choosing both major cities like Cluj and Timisoara and medium-sized ones like Buzau, Focsani and Baia Mare.
“We did not close any store in 2014, on the contrary, we postponed it for 2015 when we will make a decision based on their performance in their respective shopping centers.”
Nituleasa says the number of customers has gone up almost 30% in the first 11 months of the year, while sales by 24%. Like-for-like sales growth is 15%.
“The best news is that more and more customers are choosing to exercise, more and more Romanians are choosing a healthy lifestyle. We can see this in the increase in the number of customers, which so far (January-November) stands at almost 30% compared with last year.”
The company expects sales to go up in 2015, as well, when it also plans to open a new store, in the spring.
Intersport’s operator in Romania is Genko Trade, which also operates the New Look stores. Genko Trade posted 118 million lei (EUR26.4 million) revenue in 2013, slightly lower than the RON120 million in 2012 and had 400 employees. According to its financial report, the New Look stores generated EUR3.9 million revenue last year, so Intersport’s sales stood at EUR23 million. (EUR1=RON4.4645)
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)