Sales of the world’s largest sporting goods retailers, according to Sporting Goods Intelligence, reached 86.269 billion US$ in 2013 against 81,646 billions the prior year, an increase of 5.7% in US Dollars and 6.8% in local currency compared to an impressive 10.2% growth rate in the prior year. Besides a somewhat stronger US$ that mitigated results, there was less of a boost from Emerging Markets in 2013 and growth in Developed Markets remained steady in the mid-single-digit range. While Emerging Market retailers from Brazil, China and Southeast Asia registered a 28.2% growth rate in 2012, that slipped all the way to 6.0% currency adjusted in 2013 on the slowdown in China which represents by far the largest component of this group. The rate in Developed markets also
slipped to 6.8% but not as far from the 9.0% rate of 2012. The annual SGI rankings of the world’s largest sporting goods specialty retailers focuses on retailers whose primary business is sports products. It does not include general merchandise sales of chains like Wal- Mart, nor do they include buying groups that are especially important in Europe.
The French Decathlon chain remained the globe’s leading retailer with sales worth of 9.8 billion
US$ (approx. 7.8 billion Euros) ahead U.S chains Foot Locker (6.5 billion US$) and Dick’s Sporting
Goods (6.2 billion US$).While Dick’s remains the top U.S. chain in domestic sales, Foot Locker tops the SGI chart because of its international presence. Europe is showing a steady recovery after several economically depressed years with growth in local currencies of 6.5% in 2013, up slightly from the 5.3% growth rate of the prior year to 23.6 billion US$ from 21.7 billion US$. “The European market suffered from unseasonable weather for much of the year along with the macro-economic challenges of widespread government austerity. Another factor that is likely retarding growth in Europe is the relatively low penetration of e-commerce in the market. Too, the region is comping up against the local boost of the Olympics from the prior year,” explains Sporting Goods Intelligence.
This article was republished with permission from the editor and publisher of the Sport Intern, Karl-Heinz Huba.