Revenues increase at expanding Decathlon Irish operation reach €38.5 million

Gordon Deegan

Revenues at the expanding Irish business of sports retailing giant Decathlon last year increased marginally to €38.56 million.

New accounts show that Decathlon Sports Ireland Ltd continued on its growth path last year ahead of its second Irish store opening at Limerick in May of this year.

In their report, the directors state that as part of its future developments, Decathlon here is also looking for premises or plots to expand its Irish network to Cork, Galway and further in Dublin.

The French owned retailer currently operates two outlets here, and it is opening at Ballymun in Dublin in June 2020 was Decathlon's best ever new country opening in terms of sales and visitors to a new store.

The company opened its second outlet in May at Limerick’s Parkway Retail Park with some 5,000 sq metres of retail space catering for 70 sports.

Last year, Irish revenues increased from €38.22 million to €38.56 million and the increase was much more modest than the 124 per cent increase in revenues in the prior year which was skewed by the business’s Covid-19 impacted performance in 2020.

The Irish business is led by chief executive, Elena Pecos who was appointed to the role earlier this year and the directors state that “the company managed to meet its targets for in-store and e-commerce sales during the year”.

In a press interview this July, Ms Pecos said that both the Ballymun and Limerick stores are working well.

She said: “The Irish people trust in our brand.”

Since June 2018, Decathlon Sports Ireland Ltd also acts as the supply centre for its European activities.

The accounts show that revenues at the firm last year increased by 13 per cent from €6.6 billion to €7.47 billion. The directors state that the firm's supply activities have recovered well from the effects of the pandemic in 2020 and 2021.

The company’s pre-tax profits last year plunged by 73 per cent from €75.06 million to €20.49 million. A large factor in the decrease in profits was a €16.8 million foreign exchange loss compared to a foreign exchange gain of €22.47 million in 2021.

A breakdown of revenues show that €7.08 billion were generated in Europe, €357 million in ‘rest of world’ and €38.56 million in Ireland.

The company paid out no dividend.

Numbers employed at the business last year increased from 150 to 188 and staff costs increased from €5.43 million to €6.8 million. Directors' pay reduced from €607,000 to €577,000.

At the end of December last, the firm had shareholder funds of €638.1 million that included accumulated profits of €138.1 million.