Sports chain Decathlon presented itself with a beautiful anniversary gift, celebrating its 40th anniversary by surpassing the 10 billion euro turnover threshold for the first time ever, thanks to its international expansion.
1,176 stores in 28 countries
In its home territory of France, with 301 stores, turnover reached 3.3 billion euro, up 2.2 % compared to the year before. General manager François De Witte admitted that that “growth was not as strong as anticipated, but there are multiple reasons for that: bad weather in spring, which is an athlete’s preferred season; social unrest in June and the terror attacks. All of these impacted sales.
Internationally, Decathlon grew a lot: foreign turnover grew 12 % to 6.7 billion euro. It now has 1,176 stores (including franchise stores) thanks to 164 new sports supermarkets over the past year. It also entered an additional five countries, bringing the total to 28. Its like-for-like turnover also grew 4.4 %, which is slightly below the 5 % from 2015. Back in 2010, the company “only” generated a 6 billion euro turnover.
