The new managing director Markus Hupach was visibly proud. "We have passed a milestone and reached an all-time high," explained Hupach on Sunday at the traditional Sport 2000 press conference at the ISPO Munich.
With 1027 partners, the dealer organization in Germany achieved a 12 percent increase in sales - a result that is more than satisfactory in a challenging market environment. The multi sports, running and winter sports segments grew particularly strongly. The professional team sports retailers outperformed the competition with a growth rate of 26 percent.
Thus, the strategy of standing out from the market with a specialisation offensive is clearly paying off. The amount of specialized retailers of the Absolute Running and Absolute Teamsport franchises is therefore set to grow further in 2020: by the end of this year, Sport 2000 plans to have six specialized retailers for runners and 17 for customers with an affinity for team retailers. The kick-off for the next specialist retailers is also planned for spring: This time on the subject of Absolute Outdoor. Incidentally, Sport 2000 has also had the term Absolute Fitness protected.
So something is happening at the retail association, which is a subsidiary of the ANWR Group. This also applies to the topic of e-commerce: In the next few weeks, the long-awaited platform Sport2000.com is finally to go live. Much later than the competition, but with the claim to quickly catch up with the best in terms of "power and content". "The important thing is that we do it now. We only have to catch up partially, because good content is already available. And for our retailers it is an added value - they can also sell online then", explained Margit Gosau, CEO of Sport 2000 International.
Her appearance at the press conference was also a sign that Sport 2000 wants to be even more international in the future. In 2019, the group generated a total of 4.94 billion euros at its 3950 locations in 23 countries.
Exotic locations, such as the Dubai Mall, and the newly founded five-country organization Sport 2000 GmbH (Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg) are to ensure further growth. "Our vision at Sport 2000 International is to become the market leader in performance sports. To achieve this, we must adapt to the market in a constant and flexible manner and use international synergy effects", says Gosau.
Sport 2000 is hoping for an additional plus in 2020 from the European Football Championship. The retailer organisation is a licensed partner for flocking the Adidas jerseys of the German national football team.
This effect could also cause the ranking of Sport 2000's top suppliers to change again: In 2019, Nike has replaced Adidas as number 1. Among the rising stars are New Balance (from 14 to 11) and The North Face (from 22 to 16).
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