Both stores will be opened in cities other than Bucharest in shopping galleries or centers.
“We have not opened anything yet in 2018 but plan to expand by two stores. We only opened one store last year, in Oradea, and closed three, one in the same city and two in Arad and Bucharest – in the Vitantis shopping center,” says Antoniu Nituleasa, 41, the chief executive of Intersport in Romania.
Intersport closed its stores last year because the centers where they operated were not doing well and some of them even closed. Moreover, Intersport is now negotiating with the officials of another mall and is looking at a new store closure. Antoniu Nituleasa did not elaborate further.
Out of the 29 Intersport stores, only one is a street-front store, in the Piata Unirii area in downtown Bucharest, and the executive says he is not considering another, because this is how the retail model in Romania is. Consumers in the country prefer to go do their shopping in malls, where they have parking spots and a variety of brands and additional services.
The store in the Unirii area has an average performance, does not do as well as a store in a mall, Nituleasa says.
“It’s not a top store by sales, but is not among the slowest, either. If we were to rank the cities (by average sales per store i.e.), Bucharest would be in the lead, followed by Cluj Napoca, Timisoara and Constanta.”
Brick and mortar stores remain important to Intersport, the but the online segment is growing, as well.
“We want the online segment to account for 4% of our sales in about two years. This channel is doing better and better. We want to pursue omnichannel development and are already seeing customers that go online to get information and then come to the store to buy.”
Last year was a good year and sales went up 10%, Antoniu Nituleasa says. The sales reached RON161 million in 2016, according to the latest available data.
This year, however, started slower because of the weather.
“January was unexpectedly warm, so no sales of skis, as normal. March was cold and snowy, so we did not start to sell our spring collection.”
Under the circumstances, sales were flat in the first quarter. The company budgeted growth of 5% in 2018, which would put its sales at almost RON200 million. (EUR1=RON4.6598)
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)