French sporting goods retail chain Decathlon has signed a contract to open its fourth Israeli store. The store will be opened next year in the Meier on Rothschild Tower on the corner of Rothschild Boulevard and Allenby Street. The store will be on the site of the former Allenby-Rothschild food market, which went out of business.
The area that Decathlon is renting in Tel Aviv is 1,400 square meters, making it significantly smaller than its first store in Israel, which has 3,100 square meters, and opened in Rishon Lezion just over a year ago. The company has since signed leases to open two more stores: a 3,000-square meter store in the BIG Krayot center in Haifa and a 3,000-square meter store in Gazit Globe's (TASE: GZT) G mall in Kfar Saba. Decathlon is also expected to move its headquarters and offices to Kfar Saba.
Decathlon's trademark is its huge stores covering thousands of square meters and its competitive prices. Besides sports shoes and fashions, the especially wide variety of goods sold by the chain includes equipment for every branch of sports, including tennis and sea diving, and food supplements for athletes. Decathlon also has the Toboggan and Decat private brands, which offer products at discount prices.
In contrast to Europe, where Decathlon sells well-known international brands, as of now, Decathlon sells only its private products in Israel.
The opening of Decathlon's first Israeli store in September 2017 made Israel the chain's 34th country. Decathlon, founded in 1976 in the village of Englos near Lille, France, currently has 85,000 employees and 1,388 branches in 42 countries. The chain offers sporting goods in many categories at cheap prices.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on October 23, 2018
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