“Considering our store format it is really hard to find large street front spaces, with high traffic, charging a rent that allows one to run a profitable store,” said Antoniu Nituleasa, operational manager of Genco Trade, the company managing Intersport and New Look stores.
Nituleasa has been working for the company since April 2013, according to his LinkedIn profile. Before joining Intersport, he had worked as sales manager of Penny Market XXL and store manager for retailers Real and Kaufland.
Intersport’s new operational manager says the street front spaces in the heart of the city are taken by tenants that can afford to spend EUR30 to EUR90 per square meter on rent.
“With such operating costs, street front retail space can no longer attract any sporting goods retailer where profit margins are limited.”
Out of the more than 100 sporting goods stores of Intersport, Decathlon, Hervis, Nike and Adidas, 80% to 90% operate in malls and shopping centers. Only Adidas and Elmec (Nike) tried keeping stores in street front spaces such as the Adidas store in Bucharest’s Old Town. Intersport, too, had a store across the street from the Unirea Shopping Center in Bucharest, but eventually moved it to a mall. All the 22 stores of the retailer are now operating in shopping centers.
Five of the 22 stores are in Bucharest, while the rest are in various cities throughout the country such as Constanta, Timisoara and Cluj.
Greece’s Fourlis, Intersport’s owner opened three stores outside Bucharest last year in Iasi, Baia Mare and Focsani and plans to open three stores this year, one in Bucharest and one in Ploiesti and Galati each.
The company expects revenues of about EUR25 million this year, up from EUR21.3 million in 2012. Last year’s figures were calculated by subtracting the revenue of New Look from the total revenue of Genco Trade, to which Intersport and New Look stores are registered.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)