French major Decathlon plans Sports Villages

French sports goods retailer Decathlon S.A. of Oxylane Group is likely to set up sport villages in Gujarat as the company officials made a proposal to the state chief minister, Narendra Modi during their meeting on Thursday at Gandhinagar.

Loic Lecomte, CEO of Oxylane Decathlon and Michel Aballea, CEO of Decathlon Sports India Pvt Ltd, an Indian subsidiary of the company, met Modi and expressed keen interest to set up three Sports Villages in Gujarat, of which first Sports Village will come up near Ahmedabad. The company has applied for a 20-acre land for the purpose, a state government communique informed.

 

The chief minister has welcomed the proposal of Sports Village, which will create new opportunities in the field of human resource development for sports. The Sports Village will be equipped with world-class facilities like infrastructure for sports, sports mega stores and sports products besides having basic infrastructure facilities, the statement said. The French multinational company, Oxylane Group - the new corporate identity of the Decathlon Group, manufactures and sells sports equipment in 17 countries. Decathlon operates in India through its stores as well as sub-retailers. Globally, the company has over 434 stores. Oxylane Group has reported 9.9 per cent growth year-on-year in sales at EUR 5.98 billion (approx. Rs 41,300 crore) for 2010.

The chief minister briefed them about state government's sports initiative "Khel Mahakumbha" and other projects being developed by state government. Bhagyesh Jha, sports secretary of government of Gujarat remained present during the meeting.