French sports goods retailer Decathlon has released its financial report for the full year 2017. The retailer has reported an 11 per cent increase in its turnover to Euros 11 billion, which excludes taxes, as compared to Euros 10 billion in the year 2016.
The company’s strong international expansion during the year under review helped it to note robust growth.
Further, Decathlon opened 185 new stores in 2017. This pushed like-for-like turnover for the retailer by 4 per cent increase. Out of the total 185 new stores, 9 stores are located in its home territory. It currently operates 1,352 stores in 39 countries across the globe.
Despite the notable performance at the global level, the French sports retailer is facing difficulties in its home market alongside sluggish online retail sales. It reported just 1 per cent growth in like-for-like turnover from France in 2017. Online sales contributed just 4.5 per cent of the company’s total sales during the period under review.
According to Decathlon France’s CEO, François De Witte, who has termed Decathlon’s performance as ‘good’, the sports retailer needs to improve itself in its home market to achieve even better overall figures.
Notably, the world’s largest sporting goods retailer recently announced its plans to launch nine stores in Dublin, Cork and Galway over the next few years. The opening of these stores will create more than 500 jobs in these areas.
