Gordon Deegan The Irish business of sports retailing giant Decathlon is looking to expand its store network further here in Cork, Galway, Waterford and Dublin. New accounts for Decathlon Sports Ireland Ltd show that revenues here last year more than doubled to €37.22 million. The French owned retailer currently operates a single outlet at Ballymun in Dublin and its opening in June 2020 was Decathlon's best ever new country opening in terms of sales and visitors to a new store. Last year, the business built on the initial successful opening as revenues increased by 124 per cent or €20.64 million from €16.58m to €37.22 million.

New stores

Earlier this year, Decathlon confirmed plans to open a second store here after signing a 25-year lease for premises at Limerick’s Parkway Retail Park and will follow the same concept as its Ballymun store with some 5,000 sq metres of retail space catering for 70 sports. On the firm’s future plans, the directors state: "In April 2022, the opening of a new store located in Limerick in 2023 was officially announced. As part of its future developments, Decathlon is also looking for premises or plots to expand its Irish store network in Cork, Galway, Waterford and Dublin." The Irish business is led by chief executive Bastien Grandgeorge and on the performance of the Irish business last year, the directors state that “due to the pandemic, our store in Ballymun was closed for more than five months from the 1st of January until mid of May 2021 while our ecommerce activity was operational”. They state that “despite this difficult period and because of the reopening effect, our business was in line with our targets for 2021.”

Online sales

Decathlon launched its online sales here in 2015 and the directors state that under the heading of ‘supply’, “despite the pandemic in the first half of 2021, our business was not significantly impacted and our performances in 2021 were in line with our objectives”. Since June 2018, Decathlon Ireland Sports Ltd also acts as the supply centre for its European activities. The accounts show that revenues at the firm last year increased by 19pc from €5.52 billion to €6.6 billion. The company’s pre-tax profits last year increased 40pc from €53.3 million to €75 million. A breakdown of revenues show that €6.19 billion were generated in Europe, €372.2 million in ‘rest of world’ and €37.22 million in Ireland. Numbers employed at the Irish business last year increased from 103 to 150 and staff costs increased from €3.8 million to €5.43 million.