Decathlon Group
Decathlon is a major French sporting goods chain store, with stores located throughout the world. It started with a shop near Lille, France in 1976. It expanded to Germany in 1986, Spain in 1992 and the United Kingdom in 1999. It entered the American 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 sells sporting goods at discount prices, whilst the latter is a smaller high street sized version of the larger Decathlon superstores.
In 2007 the group is the largest sporting goods reseller with a turnover of USD 6,123,000.
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