The good booking situation for the winter season makes sporting goods suppliers positive about finally being able to get rid of the previous year’s goods and improve the tense liquidity situation. An ideal snow situation – the first snowflakes this year make us optimistic – could also give an additional boost to the already booming ski rental sector.
Austria is considered one of the most sporty countries in Europe. Cycling, running, walking or skiing are written in our DNA. Turnover in the sporting goods trade was correspondingly high, recently around two billion euros. This has repeatedly attracted new providers (such as XXL Sports, Sports Direct, JD Sports) to us in the past.
But the company is not and was not an absolute success, because competition and price wars are fierce. In recent years, corona lockdowns and delivery bottlenecks have further exacerbated the situation.
“We currently have a problem with full warehouses,” says sector spokesperson Michael Nendwich. On the one hand because the ordered bicycles were delivered late last autumn, and on the other hand because we were stuck with cross-country skiing and touring items after last winter’s lack of snow (keyword: ski tires).
At the same time, however, demand has also decreased due to inflation; frequency in stores has dropped by an average of 20 percent recently. After a record 506,000 bicycles sold in 2022, the bicycle segment will now return to a “normal level” of around 450,000, Nendwich estimates.
Huge discounts due to full warehouses
Full warehouses mean high costs for retailers, resulting in sharp discounts for customers. “This year the price was very aggressive, there are still bicycle bargains,” says Bründl Sports boss Christoph Bründl.
Now he sees himself well positioned for winter in his 31 stores. According to the trading professional, the next six weeks would be crucial.
“Stable snow conditions are crucial,” says Sport 2000 boss Holger Schwarting, whose Zentrasport purchasing group even went bankrupt due to problems at major retailer Geomix.
Well prepared, Alfred Eichblatt, CEO of Bergspezl, can currently meet all customer requests. However, it is not yet possible to make a prediction for winter activities.
Thorsten Schmitz, head of market leader Intersport, also exudes optimism about the winter, given the 50 percent increase in rental advance bookings. But eight to ten percent higher purchasing prices for skis cannot be achieved on the market. This is again at the expense of margins.
You can also see at Hervis that these were better anyway. According to the company register, the sports retailer recorded a loss of 30 million euros in 2022, partly due to the Covid crisis and supply chain problems.
What the outcome will be this year remains to be seen. According to boss Oliver Seda, the start of the winter season went well. There is a significantly increased demand in the field of children’s ski rental, for example.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
