FEDAS annual conference 2005 in Crans Montana

Factory outlets are incompatible with a fair partnerships between specialist trade and manufacturers

Crans Montana/Switzerland – ”We have made some decisive steps forward on our way towards an intensive cooperation of the European specialist sports goods trade over the past three years. This goes, in particular, for the further development of the goods group code created and supervised by FEDAS, without which electronic communication within the sector is hardly imaginable any more.” Such was the balance of the successful work of the leading European association in sports retail trade drawn by FEDAS president, Werner Haizmann, from the Association of the German Sports Retail Trade, and by secretary general, Claude Benoit, from the Swiss Association, Asmas, in their detailed statements of accounts. They claimed that FEDAS considers factory outlets incompatible for a fair partnership between the specialist trade and the sports goods manufacturers.

As every year, the conference in Crans Montana also focused on a detailed presentation of the market development in the different FEDAS countries. Both the mood and the sales figures are still restrained on the European “FEDAS market”. Neither the turnovers nor the profit margins give reason to rejoice. As far as the five major countries, France Germany, Italy, Austria and Switzerland are concerned, sales of sports goods more or less stagnated in 2004 as compared to 2003 featuring a moderate growth of 1 percent. For 2005, FEDAS anticipates the reservation of the sports goods market to continue. It is certainly true that new trends such as Nordic Fitness are positively received by the end consumer and are mirrored in corresponding purchasing campaigns. Nevertheless, their proceeds are hardly in a position to compensate for the losses encountered in ailing market segments such as tennis, inline skating or fitness appliances. Outdoor will remain the No. 1 theme throughout Europe as far as sales are concerned, followed by winter sports and all sorts of team sports (soccer, basketball, volleyball etc.). Running and walking are high in demand. The forthcoming Soccer World Cup in 2006 and the Olympic Winter Games in Torino in 2006 are hoped to provide sensitive stimuli for the market.

When discussing market developments, the FEDAS conference participants decided to hasten an initiative the association has thought about for quite a while: it is planned to carry out an extensive market study for the sports goods and sports fashion sector in the frame of the possibilities offered by the European Community. The French association was entrusted with the elaboration of a concept for this campaign.

Spearheaded by the French affiliate, FPS, FEDAS is surveying its membership in the umbrella association of the European retail trade, Eurocommerce, in a move to get straight into the heart of the political formation of will in all questions concerning the retail trade. Moreover, this should help to represent the interests of the European specialist sports goods trade even more strongly. In connection with FEDAS’s interest representation in Brussels and Strasbourg, Ernst Aichinger from the Austrian VSSÖ, will handle future contacts regarding the planned passing of the common European ordinance on chemicals for which hundreds of amendments have been filed already in the European Parliament alone. Ernst Aichinger was also a member of the contact group discussing the implementation of the ordinance on electronic scrap in 2004 with Karlheinz Florenz, chairman of the EU Parliament’s environmental committee.

It is intended to continue and strengthen cooperation with FESI, the European manufacturers’ association, in all questions concerning the entire economic field of sports goods.

In addition to this, the attitude of the European sports goods retail associations regarding the advancing creation of factory outlets all across Europe was extensively discussed in Crans Montana. FEDAS and its national associations unanimously agree that the supply to factory outlets and their establishing is incompatible with a fair partnership between specialist trade, manufacturers and suppliers.

When analysing the situation that brought about this judgment of FEDAS, the representatives of the different associations agreed that the entire sports goods sector is increasingly being verticalised, but that there was an extremely crucial difference between fully verticalised types of businesses and others distributing their brands both via sales mediators and own distribution channels. They established that the fully verticalised market participant is exclusively a competitor of the specialist trade, whereas the partly verticalised market participant is both a competitor and a trading partner at the same time. These two functions, however, contradict each other per definitionem.

By creating factory outlets, a manufacturer not only enters into competition with its sales mediators, but it also brands the specialist retailer, i.e. the major sales channel, as an (overly) expensive specialist retailer by using an aggressive market strategy and by comparing prices to sell its products in its own factory outlets. The specialist trade regards such factory outlet concepts as discriminating and not tolerable for a partnership. The national associations are requested to support this FEDAS resolution and to enter into corresponding debates with the sports goods manufacturers in question.

Claude Benoit presented a very pleasing report about the development of the FEDAS goods group code and the FSO partner association. He underlined that the FEDAS goods group code is making its way throughout Europe. It is already available in three languages now (English, German, French). Further versions are being worked on (Italian). FEDAS and/or its partner association FSO (FEDAS Standardization Organization) will shortly publish the first size standards.

In this context, Claude Benoit not only thanked all users of this code, but also the companies and purchasing organisations – spearheaded by Intersport and Sport 2000 – which participated in the creation of this European standard in long years of development work by inputting both a lot of money and manpower and will continue to do so.

VDS president, Werner Haizmann, from Stuttgart, was elected president of FEDAS for another three years. The association’s board will now include Pierre Gogin, FPS, Paris/France; Giampiero Caleri, Federadas, Florence/Italy; Ernst Aichinger, VSSÖ, Vienna/Austria; and Marcel Savioz, Asmas, Sion/Switzerland. Claude Benoit, Bern, will continue to serve as secretary general, while Adriano Testa from St. Moritz was appointed president of honour.

As before, the participants in the FEDAS annual conference decided to support one single international trade fair in Europe, namely ispo in Munich.