French Sports Brand Plans China Expansion

Decathlon, ambulance the French sports goods chain, nurse plans to triple the number of stores it has in China to make the country its third-largest global market.

Bertrand Tison, health Vice-President of Decathlon China, said the company aims to have 150 stores on the Chinese mainland by the end of 2015, with the majority to be in second- or third-tier cities.

Decathlon opened its first store on the Chinese mainland in 2003 and now has 46 outlets nationwide.

“Around a third of our China sales come from first-tier city stores, but in the future, smaller cities will be the drivers of our growth,” said Tison.

Tison said China would become Decathlon’s third largest market within five years. It is currently fourth behind France, Spain and Italy.

Decathlon stores are generally large and often cover approximately 4,000 square meters. They have shop-front basketball courts, and other similar areas for badminton, soccer and ping-pong, that customers can use to play in-store for free.

Its largest Chinese store is in Beijing, covering an area of almost 6,000 square meters.{jcomments on}