Decathlon has also moved into the Australian market with online sales, offering products for more than 35 sports. The French retailer says that orders are to be dispatched from a warehouse in Sydney, which will also handle deliveries to New Zealand after a few months. Sylvain Baudens, chief financial officer for Decathlon in Australia, told The Australian Financial Review in March that the French retailer intends to open 35 to 40 stores in Australia in the next decade, with six locations already identified in Sydney and Melbourne. He added that the plan was to have about 100 stores across the country in the long term. Decathlon says it could open a store in 2017, although it has yet to pick a precise location. While expanding rapidly in China and India, Decathlon has been planting its flag in an increasing number of Asian countries in the last two years. The eastward expansion has led to openings in Thailand last year and Singapore earlier this year. Another international player that moved into the Australian market is Intersport, which teamed up in 2013 with Independent Sports, the second-largest buying group for sports stores in Australia, and had 51 stores in the country at the end of 2015. More in SGI Europe.

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