Retail Chain Sports Direct to open new London superstore with a gym
Here’s another great example of a retailer enticing customers with additional in-store features this week as Sports Direct announce their plans to open a 100,000 square foot superstore in the heart of London, which will also include a gym for their customers – alongside their retail offering – and new office facilities for the popular retail chain brand.
Sports Direct headquarters are currently based in Derbyshire and until recently they also had offices in London. This week they confirmed that they have now sold their offices in New Cavendish Street to the University of Westminster for £44 million and are now looking to reinvest by developing their retail offering. They are on the look out for a prime retail location, which will be home to a new megastore, incorporating the former New Cavendish Street offices within the new retail development.
Dave Forsey, Chief Executive of Sports Direct explains the reasoning behind the new move for the brand, which made a healthy £14 million profit on the recent sale:
“We are continuing to strengthen our market position and expand our offering and we need more space.”
Once the new store is opened it will increase the brand’s presence in London, following the opening of their new flagship store on Oxford Street a year ago. The success of in-store gyms at three of the retailer’s other stores in the North of the country – at Aintree, St Helens and Keighley – has clearly influenced their decision to expand the retail format in the South and they have also announced plans to open a chain of stand alone-budget gyms – which are not directly adjacent to stores – perhaps in direct response to their retail rival, JD Sports new chain of ‘JD Gyms’ which launched recently.