The Chinese market continues to attract players from the sporting goods industry. While the last edition of trade fair Ispo Beijing saw a significant increase in the number of visitors and exhibitors, it was now the turn of Intersport International to announce its plans to invest in the country.

Intersport International CEO Franz Julen

Already present in 39 countries, the sporting goods retailer has just signed a master franchise agreement with Fujian New Huadu Supercenter, which mainly engages in the operation of hypermarkets, supermarkets and department stores. The new agreement will allow the Chinese group to open the first Intersport stores from mid 2013 in ten South China provinces, which together have a total of 513 million inhabitants.

With a retail surface of 1,000 to 1,500 m², the stores will offer products from the many brands sold by Intersport, as well as its own eponymous label. In the course of the next five years, New Haudu intends to open 80 to 100 Intersport stores.

With a turnover of over 9.9 billion euros, the Intersport group already operates 10 stores in South Korea and its goal is to open 500 shops in Asia by 2022, with potential annual retail sales of 1 billion dollars.