Sport Mart on Pembina gets out of game

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This article was published 24/09/2010 (5803 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

IT’S a fact of life in sports and sports retailing that if you don’t perform, you’re gone.

So after an extended period of unspectacular sales, Sport Mart has decided to close its Pembina Highway store, leaving the chain with three locations in Winnipeg.

“We’re going to close non-performing stores to improve profitability,” said Kris Maslanyk, director of operations for Sport Mart.

The company’s plan is to drive traffic to nearby Sport Chek stores, one of which is a stone’s throw away on the other side of Pembina, and another in St. Vital. Both banners are owned by the Calgary-based Forzani Group Ltd., the largest sports retailer in Canada.

Maslanyk said the decision to close the Pembina store is an isolated incident and in no way means other Sport Chek or Sport Mart locations are set to follow.

He said the 8,000-square-foot store has about 20 employees and Sport Mart’s human resources team is working to find them positions at the other Winnipeg locations.

The store will close at the end of October but until then, customers will be able to take advantage of ever-increasing discounts, starting at 30 per cent.

“For the last eight days, we tend to up the ante and move through the product to give the customer the best deal possible,” he said.

Sport Mart is differentiated from Sport Chek by its focus on more price-conscious consumers. Sport Chek, meanwhile, tends to have a greater variety of product and a wider range of prices.

 

— Geoff Kirbyson