Decathlon to Start in Hungary

BIKE EUROPE: MAARSSEN, Netherlands (October 7) - Decathlon plans to open its first three Hungarian stores in 2005, The shops will be between 3,000 and 4,00 square metres, and will be located in shopping malls that already have an Auchan hypermarket. This is prompted by the fact that the Mulliez family, who onws the Auchan chain, is also the major shareholder of Decathlon, which is Europe's largest sporting goods retailer. The French group already ventured on the Polish market in 2003, and is also looking at the Czech and other Eastern European markets. Although the group is spreading across Europe and the US, purchasing is still done centrally in France. More news is that the company is doing much better in two key markets: the US and Germany. Where these markets were previously troublesome, the closing of under performing stores has helped the company focus and the private label programme is doing remarkably well now. Total sales were up 10% over the first 8 months of the year, in a direct comparison and revenue's grew some 11% to €3.11 billion (before VAT). The fastest growing segments are: mountain related sports, sailing, cycling and team sports.(MH) .