French sports equipment store Decathlon making big foray in Malaysia

French sports equipment chain store, Decathlon, is embarking on an aggressive expansion in Malaysia by targeting to open up to 60 stores within the next decade. Decathlon Malaysia chief executive officer Tom Meng said the expansion was in line with the company’s global strategy to triple its stores worldwide to 3,000 in the next 10 years from 1,000 currently.

“For the first three years in Malaysia, we will open 10 stores with at least five in the Klang Valley,” he told Bernama at the launch of the company’s maiden Malaysian store in Kuala Lumpur recently. He, however, declined to reveal the investment commitment for the expansion.

Meng said the company would also expand to other locations nationwide with Penang and Johor among the targeted destinations. He said the company’s strategy in the country was to open large stand-alone stores with retail areas of up to 6,000 sq m and offering only in-house brands. “Currently, we have over 20 such in-house brands,” he added.

On its first store, Meng said the outlet, classified as a “retailer flagship store”, covered an area of over 2,500 sq m and offers more than 95,000 apparel, equipment and footwear products at competitive prices.

Established in 1976, Decathlon currently has a presence in over 30 countries and has a staff of 70,000 globally. Malaysia is the third country in Asean to house a Decathlon store after Singapore and Thailand.