«Slows down.» After the sprint of recent years the market sports articles in our country with «victims» Mostly smaller retail players.
Before the pandemic struck our doors the sports market in our country was estimated at around 500m euros. Within a few years with stable two-digit growth figures it is estimated to have been €900 million in 2025. As market officials have said since last year, there has been a slowdown in the rate of growth which is reportedly continuing in the first half of this year. Only the major players, the Fourlis Group (Intersport, Foot Locker) and the JD Sport (Cosmos Sports etc.) who continue their development and expansion on the market, are reportedly out of this situation.
At the beginning of the week the Director-General of Fais Group (Puma, Under Armour) Hasdai Kapon at the General Meeting of shareholders commented on the situation in the sports market in our country. «Various small, local or provincial players close their stores because the market is transferred to the major market players. The latter continue to develop and modernise the network as they have greater capacity for market credit and give weight to their electronic stores». According to Mr. Kapon a typical example Cosmos Sport (now owned by the JD Group) which makes over 30% of its sales from its e-shop.
Sportvision exit
But not everything is pink for the big players. The Serbian Sportvision – one of the strongest players in Southeast Europe – who aggressively entered the Greek market «on the wave» of the rise leaves with significant damage after agreement with the JD Group in which more than 20 stores the Serbian group had developed under the Sportvision and Buzz brands. The JD Group (Cosmos Sport, JD, Sneaker 10, Slam Dunk and Random) will assess the points of the company leaving and extend their footprint where it believes it is needed.
Barrier road to International Sports
The above development was preceded by the inclusion last September in a scheme of protection by creditors, according to a decision of the Athens Court of First Instance, of the company International Athletic Monoface Ltd (Admiral, Kappa, Maui and Sons). The company that has over 100 stores throughout Greece saw its sales in the 2024 use retreat to 49.7 million euros compared to the amount of 52.12 million euros of the 2023 year, in a decrease of about 4.56%.
In January last year he joined the extrajudicial mechanism of debt regulation to the tax and insurance institutions while already running an extensive expenditure rationalization programme at all levels —payroll, rents and other operating costs— with a view to strictly respecting the business plan drawn up by EY.
In the reversal of the downward course, the Bodytalk which joined the Interfashion Group last year (Pink Woman) In 2024 the company's turnover was EUR 10,16 million from EUR 10,99 million in the year 2023, reduced by 8%, while the results before taxes amounted to EUR 2,05 million from damage of EUR 1,03 million in the immediately preceding year. The company in 2024 employed 142 on average workers, while its network totaled 19 stores compared to 25 which it maintained in the use of 2023.
