Decathlon Group
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| Decathlon Group | |
|---|---|
| Type | |
| Founded | 1976 |
| Headquarters | Villeneuve d'ascaix |
| Industry | Retail |
| Products | Clothing Sportswear Sports equipment |
| Subsidiaries | Kalenji,Quechua |
| Website | decathlon.com |
Decathlon is a major French sporting good chain store, with stores located throughout the world. It started with a shop near Lille, France in 1976. It expanded to Germany in 1986 and the United Kingdom in 1999. It entered the United States market by purchasing the New England 20-store MVP Sports chain in 1999, rebranding them as Decathlon USA. A restructuring led to all but four Massachusetts locations closing in 2003. In September 2006, Decathlon announced its decision to exit the US altogether by year's end.
The retailer stocks a wide range of sporting goods, from tennis racquets to advanced scuba diving equipment, usually in large superstores. Decathlon Group also owns the Toboggan and Decat stores, the former focussing on winter sports, whilst the latter is a smaller high street sized version of the larger Decathlon superstores.
Contents |
[edit] Locations
Stores are located globally, currently in the following countries:
- Belgium
- Brazil
- China
- France
- Germany
- Hungary
- Italy
- Netherlands
- Poland
- Portugal
- Russia
- Spain
- United Kingdom
- United States (closed 2006)
[edit] Branding
The chain is one of the few sports manufacturers that makes and sells its own products. Each group of activities has a separate brand name:
- Artengo - Racquet Sports
- Domyos - Fitness, martial arts and contact sports.
- Fouganza - Horse riding
- Geonaute - Nomadic athletism
- Kipsta - Team Sports
- Inesis - Golf
- Kalenji - Running
- Geologic - Nature Sports
- Tribord - Water Sports
- Quechua - Mountain Sports
- Wed'ze - Ski, snowboarding
- Btwin and Rockrider - Cycle Sports
[edit] Quality
Despite the relatively low cost of most of the in house goods sold, they often come top in quality tests. Decathlon bikes are often highly rated among cycling enthusiasts for giving value for money and reliability. The professional cycling team AG2R Prévoyance used Decathlon made bicycles in Tour de France 2007. The Quechua mountain sports range including shoes, bags, clothing and climbing apparatus is often rated as some of the best on the market, often achieving higher scores than many more expensive brands in product tests.[citation needed]
