Chris Klein, Intersport: The collaboration with Epicenter is one of the best strategic decisions

The Intersport International Trade Development Director told about successful cooperation with Epicenter, brand transformation and new format stores in Ukraine.

– Chris, you are come already not the first time to Ukraine, watching the Intersport brand development in our country. Does the parent company satisfied with the current growth dynamics?

– Our Ukrainian colleagues have done a great job in a fairly short time. The Intersport managed to open in Ukraine 23 new stores with ​​over 30,000 sq. total square and three different concepts in just work twenty months  (the trade chain franchise agreement in Ukraine between Epicenter K and the Intersport International was signed in 2015, – ed.). These stores are made mostly in our new –  Austrian – concept.

Ukraine has great potential in the modern trade formats development, in my opinion. I can say that making the Intersport the companies Epicenter group part was one of the best strategic decisions.

– Does two dozen stores’ opening in such a short period can serve as an example for other countries?

– Such work rates are very impressive, on the one hand. Far from all countries could repeat Ukrainian colleagues’ similar experience. There is a danger that we cannot guarantee the store operation quality by 100% with such growth dynamics, on the other hand.

We have come across in some countries the fact that various flaws manifested after the discoveries: the imperfect merchandising, the lame marketing, the delayed collections delivery.

Fortunately, everything works in Ukraine like a clock. I have not yet found any negative points. On the contrary, I can note the competent and high-quality merchandising, the clear navigation and the good customer service that attract the buyers’ attention. And yet – I was personally very impressed by the radiant cleanliness in each from the seen trading halls.

– What is the difference between Intersport stores in Ukraine and retail outlets in other countries?

– The main difference is in the size. The Ukrainian chain shops are presented in large formats, with over 3100-3200 sq. sales square. This, of course, is pleasantly impressive against the background of our branded stores in Spain, which are ten times smaller (about 300 sq.). But in general, the Ukrainian chain keeps up with other countries.

– Are there things that you would change on the Intersport chain in Ukraine?

– What I see in Ukraine now fully corresponds to the Intersport family format. I fully support the opening stores in a new format concept. Two years ago, when Intersport was opened in Ukraine, the global chain was still operating in the old format. Today we have changed the brand concept, respectively, stores will also be reformatted in Ukraine.

Also now digitalization is very important in retail. Information digitalization is gaining momentum all over the world.

It is necessary to conduct additional marketing research, get acquainted in more detail with analytics, marginality, look at the working with suppliers “inner kitchen”, before talking about any changes. And, it is necessary to draw some conclusions, based on this.

– How does the Intersport compete with other sports chains in the world?

– Our consumers are different from customers in other chains. First of all, we focus on the middle class, respectively, our customers’ portrait is closer to the family category.

In addition, the Intersport International strives to be a professional expert for each customer. Therefore, you can see in our collections many strategically important brands, exclusive collections and Intersport own trademarks.

If we talk about global trends in sports retail, we see the different sports categories and different brands desire to be represented in one place. Our chain competitive advantage lies in such multi-brandness’ formation.

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