In presenting its financial results to analysts, XXL's management pointed out that it is setting up a centralized organization in Austria for purchasing, customer support and other functions that will be scalable for Germany and Switzerland. It is aiming for average annual sales of €12 million per store and a payback in four to five years' time, considering that the gross and Ebitda margins will be similar to those that it has reached in Sweden. XXL plans to introduce e-commerce in Austria at the end of this year. The company has no intention to open physical stores in Russia or to enter that market, but it wants to communicate with the Russian consumers who do their shopping in Finland. It will get its Finnish website translated into Russian and offer the same prices in euros for them to order items and pick them up at any of its Finnish stores. It will open a store this spring in Lappeenranta, near the Russian border, where any of the six million people living in the St. Petersburg area can pick up the products after driving for about two hours. More in Sporting Goods Intelligence Europe.

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