Fox-Wizel Ltd. (TASE: FOX) controlling shareholder and CEO Harel Wizel, the franchise holder for international sports brand Nike in Israel, is acquiring four Nike stores from the Gottex group for NIS 6 million, sources inform "Globes." The deal includes the agreements to operate the stores and their inventory. The stories in the deal are in the Arena mall in Nahariya, the Gindi TLV mall in Tel Aviv, the Ir Yamim mall in Netanya, and in the Rehovot mall.
Before the current deal, Fox operated 19 of the 24 Nike stores in Israel by means of a franchise to operate the chain's stores through Fox subsidiary Retailors, of which Fox owns 90%, while CEO Duby Shnaidman owns 10%. The four stores acquired by Fox are currently operated by Gottex subsidiary Trimera Brands, a subsidiary of Gottex, owned by Joey Schwebel and Chanan Elituv.
Although completion of the deal will mean that Retailors will operate all of Nike's stores in Israel, at least at this stage, Retailors does not have an exclusive franchise to operate the chain of Nike stores in Israel on behalf of Nike. If another franchise holder wants to start operating Nike stores in Israel, it will therefore be able to do so. Furthermore, the Maccabi Haifa soccer club operates a Nike store in Sammy Ofer Stadium. As far as is known, this store will also pass to Fox's management.
Fox entered the sports fashions sector in November 2014, when it obtained a seven-year non-exclusive franchise to establish a chain of Nike stores. In addition to the company's franchise to operate the brand in Israel, the Fox group also has a franchise to operate Nike stores in Canada. Activity in Nike stores generated NIS 110,000 in sales in 2016, compared with NIS 65,000 in 2015. In addition to Nike, Retailors also operates 12 multi-brand stores of the global Footlocker sports fashion chain.
A flagship Nike store is scheduled to open in the Ramat Gan mall this year, in place of the current branch in the mall, which will be replaced by a new Footlocker chain store. The Fox group also markets the international sport giant's brand through its website, which went online last November under the name Terminal X.
Nike, which was founded in 1964, currently has 74,000 employees worldwide. The Nasdaq-listed company has a current market cap of $109 billion.
Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on February 6, 2018
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