opening a sports shop

nickwilks7

Hi, me and my gf are thinking of opening a sports shop in our local area specialising in Cricket, Hockey and football.
we both have links to all these sports through local clubs and a shop in our area is needed and could be a good money maker!

We therefore need some info on wholesalers etc were we could get some bulk orders in for stock!

does anybody have any experience of running a sports shop?

Any info would be extremely grateful
:beer:

Savvy_Sue

If you search this board for 'sports shop' you should find some useful threads.

First question would be whether you have any experience of retail work? especially of the supervisory / managerial side. Because the thing about a shop - any shop - is that you have to be open when you say you will: never mind whether you both have swine flu / the dog's just died / your MIL is coming to stay / you need a holiday. You don't make money when you're closed, and the margins are very tight.

Second would be have you looked at Businesslink?

BritRael

I was thinking of doing that 25 years ago; being the fit, sporting hunk wot I woz Fortunately for me, I had a friend who owned his own sports shop in town so had a chat with him about my plans. In brief, he gave me a very clear and candid insight into this business which helped me decide not to proceed. I'm glad I didn't as his predictions for the industry were correct and within one year he had closed down; having been open for years.
I would advise getting professional help and advice before proceeding to ensure that your eyes are as open as possible.
Good luck.

paulwf

I managed a cycle shop so a fairly similar industry. I'm happy to help but I'll keep it brief for starters:

- You'll have lots of money tied up in stock. 1 model of trainer in 5 mens sizes and 5 womens could be £1,000. Just in cricket boots or football boots you could probably tie up best part of £10K. Remember all that stock has a slow turnaround (some will never sell), you probably need a £20-40K capital that you can write off to start with.

- Ebay and online selling has had a huge impact on sales and profit margins of top end kit. Yes people still buy from good retailers but for kit over £100 at the end of the day if someone is selling it online cheaper than your trade price (and this will happen regularly) price talks more than service.

IMHO there is a genuine need for proper sports shops not the type in shopping centres that just sell branded sportswear and have little to do with sports. It'll be hard work but very rewarding.

nickwilks7

thanks for the replies.

I have run a pub for the last year, so know all about the long hours/hard work that will be required. But never had a shop before.

At first we will be aiming at the clothing side of things to get us up and running, then hopefully if things are going well, get a good range of stock in ie, boots/trainers/bats.

Just finding wholesalers selling sporting equipment is a nightmare :mad:

where do you buy your cycling equipment paulwf??

cheers

paulwf

The cycle industry is a nightmare, although there are half a dozen large wholesalers (and you could just use them) but to provide a good range of brands you need to use a heck of a lot of companies, every many and his dog sets up a distribution company and has exclusive brands.

The mantra for independent cycle shops since the days of internet mail order has been you have to specialise. In your case you need to be seeking out niche suppliers that not many people stock, preferably companies that don't sell to people that just shove it on Ebay.

Of course you need to have some bread and butter lines but just doing the mainstream brands will leave you wide open to competition and you won't have any compelling reason to visit you. You probably need to be reading all the mags and visiting the grounds and trade shows and clubs and generally spending a lot of time on research.

Clothing can be a pain as you need to stock 4 sizes of everything, but at least it is less heavily influenced by the web as people still like to try it on. I'd imagine the buying groups such as Intersport have a lot of the market sewn up, trying to sell replica kit is probably not worth it as they discount so heavily and it changes so often.

I'd probably say a mix of 50% mainstream, 25% premium products and 25% niche works well...you don't want to be too obscure but you don't want to just do what all the rest do.

CeeBeeDeeBee

Hi I owned a sports shop for a few years until the recession and credit crunch wiped me out last year

What you wanna know?

nickwilks7

hi ceebeedeebee,
we are looking for wholesalers at the minute to supply us with our stock, but finding this rather difficult at the minute. which suppliers did you use?
I've emailed a few of the big brands, ie, puma, kookaburra regarding cricket equipment, but not sure what they will offer!

What was the reasons for you closing, just not enough business?

any advice on starting up and links to suppliers would be brilliant!

thanks,
Nick

CeeBeeDeeBee

Hi Nick

I hope you know what you're getting into it's very hard out there in retail at the moment.

I can let you have contact details for most of the main players, you shouldn't have too much problem with Umbro, Reebok and Adidas. I doubt you will get a Nike or Puma account, for Nike you have to be well established with accounts with everyone else before they will even look at you, plus you have to forward book at least £15K a year with them.

Puma just wern't interested in opening new accounts when I was trading, not sure how they are now.

We closed from a number of things, we moved the shop to a better area of town but the new landlord messed us about and we couldn't carry on.

It would be a good idea to know how much you have to spend and how big a unit you are planning to have - do you have a place sorted yet?

Have you got your business plan done yet? What mark ups are you expecting? Paulwf is right about the amount of money you will have tied up in stock - we had around £90K in stock (cost price) and it takes some keeping on top of lol

I hope this helps for starters

jess_the_cat

Hi and sorry to jump in .Do you have a shop yet ? if so theres rent to pay and could some one tell me what other payments need paying i know Rent ,gas / electric and how much are buisness rates?? thanks all

paulwf

jess_the_cat wrote: »

Hi and sorry to jump in .Do you have a shop yet ? if so theres rent to pay and could some one tell me what other payments need paying i know Rent ,gas / electric and how much are buisness rates?? thanks all

- Rent
- Gas isn't used by many shops
- Electricity - remember most of what you'll use is at the more expensive day rate
- Rubbish - this can be expensive, your business rates don't cover this
- Business rates - depends on the rateable value of the shop
- Insurance - covers employers liability, public liability, cash (if in a safe), stock, windows etc usually all in one package. You may have to pay the landlords buildings insurance.
- Loads of silly little things like annual fire extinguisher checks, music license
- Service charge if in a shopping centre (will include waste though)
- Building decoration & general upkeep, most leases are fully repairing
- Telephone & broadband

To take on a lease you need to use a good commercial surveyor and a commercial solicitor.

Are you looking to take on an empty shell or an established business? What type of business is it?