In France, Intersport about to make offer on Go Sport

AFP has learned from a source close to the matter that sportswear and equipment retailer Intersport is preparing a bid to take over its ailing French competitor Go Sport, which is currently in receivership. The news confirms a report in the French business newspaper Les Echos. Meanwhile, the CEO of Go Sport has been fired.

The takeover bid for an undisclosed sum has to be submitted by this Friday, the deadline for filing bids at the Commercial Court in Grenoble, France, which placed Go Sport in receivership in February.

In France, Intersport is one of the largest retailers of sportswear and equipment. In 2021, the group saw significant growth, with sales increasing by 23.6% to €2.76 billion (of which €120 million from online sales). In 2022, Intersport retained the title of leading clothing retailer in France by volume, ahead of the various ready-to-wear specialists, according to Kantar.

With 9.1 million registered customers, Intersport operates 431 stores in urban and suburban locations, 259 stores in mountain resorts, 68 metropolitan stores for the Blackstore chain and 10 outlet stores in France. While Go Sport currently has 215 addresses, between owned and franchised stores, with the Go Sport and Endurance Shop chains.

According to the French daily L’ObsAnother sports retailer is considering an offer for Go Sport: British retailer Frasers, owner of Sports Direct, which operates a dozen stores in France.

L’Obs has also reported that Go Sport’s current owner, Hermione People & Brands (HPB) group, is considering a business continuity plan as part of the receivership proceedings.

Patrick Puy sacked

In a further development, Go Sport CEO Patrick Puy was fired by HPB two months after taking office, HPB told agency AFP on Thursday. HPB initially did not want to comment on the reasons for Puy’s dismissal Le Monde and industry magazine LSA.

Puy is a specialist in corporate restructuring and recently held shares in the Vivarte Group. He was appointed CEO of Go Sport on January 4th. At the time, HPB described him as “adept at negotiating between unions and management” and assigned him to “drive the necessary transformation of the company”. Puy was Go Sport’s second CEO in less than a year, succeeding Benoît Verdier, who was appointed at the end of February 2022.

Go Sport is also the target of an investigation into misappropriation of company assets after “its auditors handed over information about several criminal acts,” according to Grenoble prosecutors. The case was eventually referred to Junalco, the national organized crime agency in Paris, to which it was reassigned on suspicion of “organized gang fraud”.

The Go Sport group was founded in 1978 and is based in Sassenage on the outskirts of Grenoble. After years of losses, it was bought by HPB in late 2021 for the symbolic sum of one euro from Rallye, the heavily indebted parent company of French food distribution group Casino. Go Sport has just over 2,000 employees.

The group’s ultimate owner is FIB, the holding company of Bordeaux businessman Michel Ohayon, who is currently caught in a storm of financial difficulties and allegations of fraud. HPB, a subsidiary of FIB, controls a number of retail chains, notably Camaïeu, which went into liquidation in September 2022, Go Sport and Gap France, which is also in receivership. HPB was placed under receivership in January.