April 20, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] France’s sports retailer Decathlon said Wednesday it will open its first Korean store near Seoul next week amid a growing popularity of sportswear products in the country.

The 7,800-square-meter outlet, located in Songdo, west of Seoul, will open on Sept. 15, along with its Korean online mall, it said.

“Songdo is a sports city. There are many parks where we can run, walk and we have many families living here too. It‘s exactly what we wanted,” Decathlon Korea CEO Stephane Guy said during a press conference held at the store.

Decathlon plans to expand the number of stores in Korea to five in two years.

“Many sites are under negotiation,” the CEO said, regarding the company’s plan to open a store in the capital city, adding nothing has been decided in detail yet.

Established in France in 1976, Decathlon currently has 1,415 stores in 47 countries, including Korea, with some 85,000 employees. In fiscal 2017, the company’s sales came to 11 billion euros (US$12.75 billion).

By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)