The next big bang in the team sports industry: After SC24.com had already gotten into trouble, it has now become known that its large (former) partner Geomix is also insolvent. However, the continued existence of the company appears to be assured.
The steep rise of the Austrian online team sports retailer Geomix (Liezen/Styria) has come to an abrupt end: Today it was announced that the company has filed an application with the Leoben regional court to open self-administration restructuring proceedings. The reason for this, it is said, is “the massive deterioration in the economic conditions in the industry in recent years”.
The crisis-related decline in sales in some business areas and a failure in Germany would have resulted in liquidity problems. However, the continued existence of the company appears to be assured.
Sales in the double-digit million range
The online team sports retailer is one of the top players not only in Germany, but also in Europe. The online shop went live in 2013, and five years later sales were in the double-digit million range. In 2022, that was the goal in Corona times (even during which the company was able to grow strongly despite the stricken market), the 100 million euro mark should be cracked.
Geomix now has to pay tribute to the massive expansion – thanks to its less economical pricing policy. It was heard from dealer circles that the online player had granted football clubs discounts of 45 to 50 percent and a refund of up to ten percent on sales sales. Of course, the local brick-and-mortar retailers couldn’t like this because it also stole customers away from them. One team sports provider complained: “The large team sports online companies in particular are changing their pricing policies significantly and are acting more and more aggressively, that is to say, more desperately.” It has been the case for a long time that there is a tough fight in this market. In times of crisis, however, this action takes its toll.
At SC24.com, the former and equally insolvent partner, the situation is as follows: As the provisional insolvency administrator Marc Lang from the Tappmeier law firm (Ulm) reports, the club’s business is running stable again. “The clubs are supporting SC24.com. They are also currently being supplied,” he reports. The problem child, he emphasizes, was the online shop. The company around board member Markus Müller has now (for now) said goodbye to this consumer business.
Regarding the future of SC24.com, Lang says: “We have already initiated an M&A process, which will start this week, so that we can find an investor who can continue to run the company. We think we have to act pretty quickly here. I hope that we will have the first results available in July so that we can act quickly and present them to the investor.”
