Karstadt sports plans to significantly expand its online business following the takeover of the former otto subsidiary sport scheck.
The goal is to double sales through e-commerce within the next five years, the new head of the sporting goods retailer, thomas wanke, told the "welt" newspaper. Sport scheck is a strong online and offline marketplace. However, it has so far lacked a sufficiently coarse network of outlets to dovetail with the local stationary trade.
"Together, we now have 156 flats in karstadt and galeria-kaufhof department stores plus 52 separate sporting goods stores nationwide," said wanke. This would open up completely new possibilities for karstadt sports in competition with competitors such as decathlon, amazon or zalando.
At the same time, the company wants to reduce costs through the merger. "First and foremost, we will compare the supplier conditions of both companies, review leases and processes," said wanke. He is not sure whether there will be any job cuts. The focus of the new strategy, however, is less on cost savings than on growth.
Wanke announced a customer survey on what name the merged company should bear in the future. "I personally have great sympathy for the sport scheck brand. Founded in 1946, it is a real traditional brand, whereas karstadt sports has always been a sub-brand of karstadt," he said. But this does not mean a preliminary decision.