INTERSPORT assigns Licence for the Turkish market

01.10.2005 | IIC - INTERSPORT International Corp. announces to have signed a licence agreement with Sporting Güngör A.S. today. The Istanbul based Sporting Güngör A.S. is thus exclusively entitled to use the INTERSPORT banner in Turkey.

IIC-INTERSPORT International Corporation (IIC) is pleased to announce that it signed a licence agreement for the territory of Turkey with Sporting Güngör A.S., today. This agreement allows Sporting Güngör A.S. to exclusively open INTERSPORT stores, sell INTERSPORT’s exclusive branded products and have access to all other services provided by IIC.

Sporting Güngör A.S. was founded in 1985 by the Yarcan family and is today one of the major multi brand sport store chains in Turkey. The company is owned 50% by the Yarcan family and 50% by Burdaras, one of the major Icelandic investment companies. The company Sporting Güngör A.S. will be renamed into INTERSPORT Turkey and will have its headquarters in Istanbul.

The six existing Sporting stores will be converted into INTERSPORT stores until December 2005. In 2006, another 6 stores will be opened in major Turkish cities such as Istanbul and Ankara. From 2007 onwards, the expansion will be accelerated to reach quickly a country wide INTERSPORT coverage in Turkey and the business plan foresees to reach 35 shops in 2010.

Franz Julen, CEO of IIC-INTERSPORT International Corporation states: “Turkey is an important, fast growing market, close to and strongly influenced by Europe. With Sporting Güngör A.S. we are convinced having found the right partner to establish the trademark INTERSPORT professionally and according to its image and positioning. This co-operation is another important step to further position INTERSPORT as the only Pan-European sporting goods retailer and the world’s leading sports retail brand”.
Levent Yarcan, CEO of INTERSPORT Turkey says: “Turkey is at the beginning of a new time period, where 69 million inhabitants are showing more and more interest in sports. Sport is becoming part of the daily life. It has always been our ambition to team up with the strongest names in sporting goods retailing and therefore we are proud to be the licensee of the world-wide known brand INTERSPORT in Turkey”.

With a turnover of EUR 7.3 billion and more than 4,800 specialist sports stores in 29 countries, the INTERSPORT Group has further strengthened its position as the leader in the world sporting goods market.