Confirming articles in Sport-guide.com, SportEco and other French media, Decathlon says it is going on with a process of replacing external brands with its own private brands, indicating that their number could rise in the next few years in order to cover all the sports activities, including the most innovative ones. Big outdoor brands like Merrell and others, which compete with the retailer's Quechua brand, told us that they will be phased out gradually. For Columbia, which has a significant business with Decathlon in Europe, the phaseout already began in the apparel category after the last autumn/winter season and is planned to be completed for all other categories after the spring/sumer 2020/21 season. However, all the brands that we spoke to said they hoped to redeploy their sales through other channels. Meanwhile, Decathlon also confirmed a report in Sport-guide.com that Matthieu Leclercq decided not to extend his mandate as chairman of Decathlon's board of directors after it expired at the end of June. No reasons were given, but other French media cite a possible difference of views with the company's other shareholders, which belong to the Mulliez family. A successor has yet to be named. More in Sporting Goods Intelligence Europe.

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