Decathlon looking at Limerick, Cork and Galway for new locations
The retailer opened its first Irish store at Ballymun, Dublin, in June of last year after a €13m investment as the country emerged from the first Covid-19 lockdown. File picture: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie
The Irish business of sports retail giant Decathlon has plans to open two more stores here "and expand in Limerick, Cork or Galway as a priority in the coming years".
That is according to a directors' report in new accounts which show that revenues at Decathlon Sports Ireland Ltd declined by 7% from €17.8m to €16.58m last year.
The retailer opened its first Irish store at Ballymun, Dublin, in June of last year after a €13m investment as the country emerged from the first Covid-19 lockdown.
In May of this year, the store was boasting the highest sales of surfboards in the world of any of the French-owned Decathlon’s 1,750 stores.
Chief executive of Decathlon Ireland Bastien Grandgeorge said on Friday that the flagship Irish store at Ballymun "is outperforming our expectations since its opening in June 2020 and will be for sure within the best performing store overall in the group on a 12-month trend”.
He said: “The online activity has been also boosted by the change of habits of purchase from sporty people during the pandemic and is growing multiple digit.
Mr Grandgeorge said in order to accompany Decathlon's growth in Ireland, the firm is currently actively recruiting for more than 40 posts, including 20 positions for managerial roles in retail and finance.
According to the directors’ report attached to the accounts, despite the economic impact of the pandemic, Decathlon Ireland “has seen its market share grow in the Republic of Ireland as a result of the success of the online activity”.
Decathlon launched its online sales here in 2015 and the directors say the success of online “has helped to establish confidence in relation to the success of this group in this country, when restrictions are lifted”.
The directors also say that while revenues declined by 7% as a consequence of the impact of Covid-19 “facing the crisis, the company engaged in actions to control the level of margin of its activity and also reduce its cost base”.
The directors said that as a result, the level of profit actually increased as a result.
Since June 2018, Decathlon Ireland Sports Ltd also acts as the supply centre for its European activities.
As a result, the company’s revenues for last year totalled €5.52bn – a decrease of 7% on the €59bn for 2019.
The company’s pre-tax profits last year increased 22.6% to €53.3m.
A breakdown of revenues show that €5.25bn were generated in Europe, €299.7m in "rest of world" and €16.58m in Ireland.
The company paid out a dividend of €37.95m.
Numbers employed last year more than tripled from 34 to 103 as staff costs increased by 139% to €3.8m.
The directors said with the Covid-19 restrictions in place since last December, Decathlon’s Irish store has only been partially open for essential goods.
They said this resulted in five months of effective closure this year while stores in Europe have also been hit by closures.
The directors said this would impact on revenues for 2021.
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