Decathlon India eyes $1 bn sales in 5 years with double-digit growth

French sports goods retailer Decathlon plans to reach nearly a billion-dollar sales in the Indian sports market over the next five years, helped by the expansion of its retail channels and product portfolio and growing sports culture in the country, its India Chief Executive Officer Sankar Chatterjee has said.

Decthlon, which currently operates 132 stores in 55 cities across India, plans to expand its retail footprint to over 90 cities by 2030 and plans to register a revenue of around Rs 8,000 crore by then.

"We are looking towards a double-digit growth in terms of our revenue year by year. After having a double-digit growth for the next five years, we believe that we will be able to get a significant market share in the sports market in India," Chatterjee said.

In FY24, Decathlon Sports India Pvt Ltd reported its revenue from operations at Rs 4,008.26 crore and returned to profitability.

When asked whether Decathlon Sports India aspires to be billion billion-dollar company in the next four to five years, the chief executive said: "That's our target".

"In the next five years, we will be looking towards a number (revenue) which is a little more than Rs 7,500 crore and 8,000 crore," he said.

Stating that the current market condition is very agile, he said Decathlon has started navigating for the very long run in the country.

"But at the same time, we are looking towards a consistent double-digit growth in the Indian segment in the next five years, which will help us to reach a significant number, and take more market share in the sports segment for India," he added.

According to Chatterjee, Decathlon has "big plans for India", where it has increased local sourcing to 70 per cent, intending to step it further to 90 per cent by 2030.

"India is an important country for Decathlon, we are looking towards a double-digit growth year by year, over the next five years, and at the same time, we are scaling with 10 to 15 stores in a year," he said.

Though as per its retail growth strategy, it is not only focusing majorly on metropolitan cities, especially the top seven, but also entering into smaller tier II and III cities, which have a good sports culture.

The company has opened stores in small places as Prayagraj (UP), Kolhapur (Maharashtra), Solan (Himachal Pradesh), Udaipur (Rajasthan), besides in metro cities like Phoenix Marketcity in Kurla, Mumbai and Pondy Bazaar, Chennai.

"So, we are looking towards opening in different cities, also concentrating on existing cities and scale up," he said, adding that "we are opening more stores, penetrating more with digital at the same time, opening new geography".

Decathlon is focusing on places where sports awareness is high, such as Panipat in Haryana and Chandigarh, where it has opened stores. Besides, it is also planning to open more stores in the Northeast region.

"We believe that the top 50 cities of India have a real potential for sports, where the government wants to penetrate, and we have quite a lot of success in those new geographies," he noted.

Besides, Decathlon is also looking at the omnichannel system, strategically integrating its online platforms and offline retail stores.

When asked about the growth of online and brick and mortar channels, he said Decathlon expects a right share of growth by each channel to take more market share.

Over the expansion of the product portfolio, he said, now in India, the company is witnessing an increase in the expertise level of products in many sports.

"It could be Mountain Sports, it could be sports of running. It could be racket sports like pickleball, which is picking up very well," said Chatterjee.

Moreover, to make its products more affordable, Decathlon has also started a circular business model in the country, where it is offering repair services, sale of refurbished products at its stores and buyback of used equipment.

"Second Life (resale), buyback and also selling those products, we have a very good response," he said, adding that "today, we have a limited typology of the products, but it could be expanded in a much bigger way in terms of usage for circularity".

The company entered India by starting production in 1999 and retail operations in the country in 2009.