Industry: Analysis New year, new dawn?
David Pittman spoke to sports retailers across the UK to find out how they’d experienced business over the festive period, and to find out their hopes for the future.
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hen asked, most independent sports retailers across the UK tell you that Christmas and New Year didn’t see tills ringing and stock flying out the door.
In fact many independents will give you a fairly bleak impression of the last six to eight weeks of trading.
Tony Turner of Rosebank Sports in Northwich, Chesire said: “It went fairly disastrously. Northwich is a small market town which is struggling, and sports is struggling on top of that.”
Roger Brewster, director of Purbeck Sports in Swanage, said: “It was a disastrous period. We tend to find Christmas is not a great time of year anyway and doesn’t do us any favours as people have moved to buying electronic toys rather than sports equipment.
“Plus Swanage is small town near big towns so we do the best we can to keep people coming back. The credit crunch really hit home this winter as well, and the weather hit us pretty bad.”
A spokesperson from Wood Sports in Newcastle said the weather was one of the biggest influences on its sales over the period, while Just Sport, also from Newcastle, said it didn’t even open from Christmas Eve until the New Year.
The Sports Shop in Shanklin on the Isle of Wight is part of a small group that includes three toy stores, and a spokesperson for the group said: “The toy stores did pretty well over the period, but sports not so.
“The sports side of business has been hacked away by the big discount retailers who can offer general sports products at a cut price, as well as offering online purchasing.”
The Sports Shop does have a website, but the spokesperson said it does not have the scale to handle online sales. Instead, it maintains a focus on its catchment area of the Isle of Wight, notable for its older population, and offers products and equipment for sports the larger multiples won’t handle.
“Cricket and bowls are still doing OK, and we get a lot of footfall from maintaining a presence in those markets.”
Rosebank Sport’s Turner said his business struggles to match the large retailers in the
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online space as well. “We do sell online,” he said. “But the bigger names take most of the business in that space.”
Millet Sports has both a high street presence in north-west London, as well as selling online. Manaing director Simon Millet said this festive season has shown which stream is proving its worth to the business.
“Online we had a record Christmas and a record New Year. We’re well ahead of where we budgeted to be. Retail has been down though, both pre- and post-Christmas. The high street is suffering from the changing face of shopping as online is easier, quicker and cheaper.” However, Brewster said Purbeck Sports won’t be entering the online retail space anytime soon as it wants to remain a specialist that values service over price. “I’ve heard bad stories of people buying products online and them then not fitting or working properly.
“I want us to make a name for ourselves as a specialist in running.”
Original Sports in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, is also pinning its hopes on creating a name for itself as a specialist in two areas, running and racket sports, rather than trying to keep too many plates spinning.
On Christmas Eve, it closed its double fronted retail shop and moved to a purpose-built showroom in the warehouse facility of sister company Kingswood Leisure, in Leigh-on-Sea. While owner Donna Guppy admits this is a less glamorous location, she said it has allowed the business to focus on areas where it is strong and made the business more manageable. “We’ve decided to go with what we’re best at, and have built a dedicated showroom where we
can do gait analysis and have a hitting area so people can trial rackets.
“We’re really quite impressed with the response we’ve had and the number of people that are making the effort to come and find us. Plus, as we are now a destination sports retailer, those coming to us are more likely to spend money with us.”
Guppy notes that Original Sports’ situation didn’t make it exempt from the problems that blighted the wider retail environment before Christmas, namely the weather, as it was at this time when it was attempting to sell off stock from lines no longer being carried but “hardly saw a soul for a few weeks”.
However, she adds that Original Sports has seen a strong start to 2011 and she is positive for the future. “Having a positive mental attitude plays a big part in success, as does making sure we concentrate on what the customer needs and provide the right level of service.
“We’ve condensed down to make the business more manageable and now it’s all about service, service, service.”
Turner noted that Rosebank Sports may have to follow a similar line to Original Sports and put a focus on categories where it can offer something different to the rest of the market. He said: “There is a deeper issue about sports retailers understanding Joe Public. We’ve got to change our outlook and become more focused. “The market for some sports hasn’t grown. Rugby has held up but football hasn’t. Darts and snooker are doing well as well.
“We’re a technical running specialist, as well as a specialist in racket sports and general fitness. We’ve got a two-floor store and we’re looking at doing something different with the top floor and coming out of problematic categories, one of which is football.” For others though, the solution might not be quite so drastic. The Sports Shop spokesperson said it will continue to work on holding a decent stock level of equipment and spares that consumers will find harder to buy online, while Wood Sports reported a better start to 2011 than end to 2010 “although not as strong as we would like it”.
Brewster said: “We’re keeping our heads down and hoping for better times, which I’m sure will come soon.”
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