Sport Mart closing Polo Festival store
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/12/2010 (5704 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
JUST weeks after shuttering its Pembina Highway store, Sport Mart has decided to abandon its Polo Festival outlet, too.
“We’re closing down unprofitable locations to improve the profitability of the (parent company) Forzani Group Ltd. (FGL),” said Kris Maslanyk, Calgary-based director of operations for Sport Mart.
He said FGL, the largest sports retailer in Canada, expects that customers who frequented the Sport Mart business on Empress Street will cross the road to its sister retailer, Sport Chek, at Polo Park Shopping Centre.
“It’s a very similar situation to what happened with the Pembina location,” he said, noting business picked up immediately at the Sport Chek across the street.
Sport Mart focuses on price-conscious consumers while Sport Check tends to have a greater variety of product and a wider range of prices.
Maslanyk said there are no plans for FGL to shut down its remaining two Sport Mart outlets, one at Kildonan Place and the other in Unicity.
“Both those stores are profitable,” said Maslanyk, who pointed out that the prospects are similarly positive for FGL’s five Sport Chek stores in town.
“Winnipeg is a thriving market for us,” he said.
Sport Mart has begun the store’s liquidation phase as it prepares to vacate the space for good next month.
Robert Warren, a marketing professor at the I.H. Asper School of Business at the University of Manitoba, said competition in the sporting goods market continues to intensify, particularly in the Polo Park neighbourhood, which recently welcomed Pro Hockey Life’s big box location on St. James Street.
“Sport Mart has probably seen a decrease in sales. When you see companies shutting stores, they aren’t hitting their financial targets. It’s a sign of the times. More competition makes it tough to have so many outlets so close together,” he said.
The 9,000-square-foot space won’t be empty for long. John Pearson, a commercial broker with Shindico Realty Inc./IC&C Properties Inc., which owns Polo Festival, said it has already been leased to Addition-Elle, a plus-sized women’s clothing store.
geoff.kirbyson@freepress.mb.ca