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In recent months, the Norwegian Competition Authority has examined the sports market to chart how the business combination between Sport 1 and the former Gresvig stores will affect competition.
After stopping the merger for the first time, the Norwegian Competition Authority has now given its approval for the two main players to have co-owners.
– On behalf of all store employees and drivers, we are very happy with today’s message from the Norwegian Competition Authority! We need more information on this before we can comment further, writes Gresvig boss Lars Kristian Lindberg in a text message.
The newly established sports player has been named Sport Holding, which is owned by the Sunde and Gjelsten family. Sport Holding bought the estate after Gresvig’s bankruptcy and can now continue the operation of the old Gresvig stores.
– This ended as expected
– We are very happy that this has ended as we expected, says Petter Schouw-Hansen, who is Chairman of the Board of Sport Holding and has been instrumental in establishing the new group.
The plan the new group worked on is that Sport 1 and Intersport will continue as independent chains.
– Gjelsten and Sunde have a long history in retail. As responsible owners, we did a thorough analysis internally, and also with external consultants, before deciding to merge Sport 1 and Intersport.
The new sports giant will consist of around 200 Sport 1 stores and 160 Intersport stores.
The new sports group will go XXL and become the country’s biggest player in the sports industry.
“After a thorough evaluation, the Norwegian Competition Authority has concluded that a merger of Gresvig and Sport 1 will not significantly impede effective competition in the sports market,” says department director Magnus Gabrielsen of the Norwegian Competition Authority in a statement. press.
Known with skepticism
Both the competing chain Stadion and some suppliers have been critical of the new sports giant.
DN has previously mentioned that the audit had objections to the competitive situation in a total of seven local markets. However, based on an overall assessment, the Norwegian Competition Authority has approved the merger.
One possible scenario was that Sport Holding would have to propose corrective measures to get a clear signal of the merger. In that case, Sport Holding ran the risk of having to sell stores in areas with little competition.
– We have come to the conclusion that the conditions for intervening are not met. Therefore, we have closed the case without establishing conditions, Gabrielsen told DN.
The Norwegian Competition Authority received the parties’ response to the notification on 10 September. In addition to the parties’ responses, the Norwegian Competition Authority has obtained and received further information on the case.
– On this basis, the Norwegian Competition Authority has carried out further evaluations and concluded that there is no basis to intervene against the business combination. These evaluations are related, among other things, to the Authority’s evaluations of the alternative to a merger, says project manager Jan Kristoffer Høiland.
The Chairman of the Board of Sport Holding believes that there is now significant potential to streamline operations into a new system that can benefit consumers.
– We were relatively confident in our comprehensive evaluations, responds Schouw-Hansen.
Huge loss
The competitive situation in the sports industry in recent years has been characterized by bad winters, fierce price competition and new online players who have challenged the networks.
Gresvig has been in a very pressured situation with losses in the billion class. XXL surpassed Gresvig as the greatest athlete in Norway.
Gjelsten’s Sport 1 chain, on the other hand, has been a profitable and specialized retail chain that has stayed away from the most aggressive price war in the sports industry.
In an attempt to clean up the loss-laden group, the G-Sport and G-Max chains were decided to shut down last year. On the other hand, Intersport had to cultivate. The switch to Intersport wasn’t completed until Gresvig went bankrupt in February.
Since February, the bankrupt farm has managed 16 of the Gresvig stores, which were included in a yellow list of unsolved stores.
– The work of integration of the companies will now begin immediately. It is unfortunate that our many members of the chain, especially at Intersport, have had to live in a vacuum and uncertainty during the audit processing time. Now we look forward to giving stores the service and follow-through they deserve, says Schouw-Hansen.(Terms)Copyright Dagens Næringsliv AS and / or our suppliers. We would like you to share our cases via a link, which leads directly to our pages. Copying or other use of all or part of the content can only be done with written permission or as permitted by law. For more terms, see here.
