“We’ll continue the upward trend this year. We have 7% growth in the first half and expect to preserve it in the second half of 2019. We can see there’s a greater appetite for strategic grands that eat the market share of the private labels,” says Antoniu Nituleasa, the Romanian executive who runs the business.
The company already has 31 brick and mortar stores in Romania, one of which opened in Sibiu in the mall developed by NEPI Rockcastle earlier this year.
It has budgeted one or two more stores for the second half, also in malls, for this year.
“We have not closed anything in 2019. Last year we did close the store in Felicia Iasi and opened one in Iulius Mall in the same city. The network is stable, and we are not thinking of closing any store.”
Intersport intends to pursue online development, the executive says. The online store generates 1% of the sales, having launched two or three years ago. Antoniu Nituleasa says it has the potential to grow to a 5% to 10% market share in the next two years.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)