Decathlon wants to acquire 50 percent of Sport 2000 France

Paris - Decathlon wants to acquire 50 percent of Sport 2000 France, the two rival companies announced on Monday. This merger could shake up the sporting goods market, which was already disrupted by Intersport's acquisition of dozens of Go Sport stores in 2023.

As the French market leader, Decathlon has signed a letter of intent with Céraclès Coopérative, the former Sport 2000 France group, for the transaction. The value of the deal has not been disclosed.

This acquisition could be finalised “during 2027”, subject to approval from the Competition Authority, Bastien Grandgeorge, managing director of Decathlon France, told AFP.

Decathlon would not directly acquire the Sport 2000 stores in France, which would remain independent. Instead, it would take over half of their central purchasing group, which is responsible for organising their joint activities.

This central group pools activities such as purchasing; product offering development; logistics; and marketing, without owning the points-of-sale itself.

It is currently wholly owned by Céraclès, a cooperative belonging to the entrepreneurs who operate the stores under its various banners.

Filling a gap in the market

For Decathlon, the interest in the deal seems to lie less in the central group's financial weight, which had a turnover of 98 million euros and a net profit of just 215,000 euros in 2025. The main appeal is the strategic position that the Mulliez group's flagship (which includes Auchan and Leroy Merlin) would gain within the Sport 2000 network in France.

The two groups have different geographical coverage. Sport 2000 has a stronger presence in rural areas and especially in mountain resorts, where Decathlon, with its larger format stores, is almost non-existent.

This merger would allow Decathlon to be “even closer to customers in places where we were not present,” highlighted Grandgeorge.

According to the director, the project aims to combine the “mutual strengths” of Decathlon's integrated model, which designs its own products through brands like Quechua, with the cooperative model of Céraclès.

This synergy could result in Decathlon's own-brand products appearing on the shelves of some Sport 2000 stores, filling a “gap in the market” in their offering, explained Céraclès chairman, Thierry Lavigne.

However, each retailer would remain free to decide whether or not to stock these products, the two groups confirmed. They also ruled out any disappearance or transformation of the Céraclès banners.

The partners are also considering other collaborations in e-commerce and services, such as ski equipment rental – a long-standing niche for Sport 2000 – or bicycle repairs through Mondovélo, another of the cooperative's brands.

A merger under scrutiny

The project will, above all, have to convince the Competition Authority.

When it authorised the takeover of seven Go Sport stores by an Intersport member in early 2024, the Authority dismissed the risk of harming competition. It observed that Decathlon and Sport 2000 would continue to provide competitive pressure.

In five of the six catchment areas where activities overlapped, it estimated that these two banners would be “in a position to compete with and discipline the new entity”.

At the time, the Authority had calculated that Decathlon alone accounted for over 50 percent of the national market for large specialist sports retailers, based on a strict definition that excluded e-commerce.

Decathlon's 50 percent entry into Sport 2000's central group will force the Authority to re-examine this reasoning, even though the stores will remain legally independent.

The announcement of this proposed merger comes as sales at Céraclès network stores are declining. In 2025, its 732 stores generated a cumulative turnover of 788 million euros, down 5 percent year-over-year, even though the network had 30 more points-of-sale.

In addition to Sport 2000 and Mondovélo, the network includes the brands S2 Sneakers Specialist, WAS We Are Select and Ekosport Rent.

Anticipating a further decline, Céraclès is forecasting sales of just 768 million euros in 2026. However, it maintains its ambition to expand its network to 1,000 stores by 2030.

Decathlon France, on the other hand, is in another league altogether, with a turnover of nearly four billion euros in 2025.