BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Decathlon has acquired Swiss sports store chain Athleticum from Maus Frères, Bike Europe reports.
Decathlon now has stores in 23 locations in Switzerland having previously owned only two stores and a webshop.
The existing Athleticum locations will gradually be transformed into Decathlon stores by autumn 2019, and by then the name Athleticum will be off the market.
Athleticum is currently Switzerland’s third largest sports chain, behind Ochsner Sport and Migros SportXX, but is only half as big in turnover as their two bigger rivals.
Decathlon reported a total turnover of €11 billion in 2017, a four per cent like-for-like increase compared with 2016.
Last year the sport retail giant expanded into ten new countries: Colombia, Ghana, the Philippines, South Africa, Switzerland, Israel, Tunisia, Indonesia, Australia and the United States.
