Sitting in the cafe located within Decathlon’s outlet in Surrey Quays, Eric Mazillier explains that he usually cycles almost 30km a day, but on the morning of our interview he had avoided the trip because it was beginning to rain.
The poor weather, however, has not dampened his passion for sport. The Frenchman laughs: “If I am not able to do sports, I would change my job. Sport is part of my DNA, is part of my balance.”
The managing director of Decathlon’s UK operations has worked for Decathlon for over 27 years and started as a sales assistant when he was a student in France. “A side job,” he explains. “And I really enjoyed it.” After this brief stint, he entered roles with other companies in finance, in production and with tech companies, but these roles did not provide the challenge he had been seeking.
He returned to the French sporting goods giant a few years later and has never left.
Mazillier has gathered a wealth of experience with Decathlon, with roles ranging from posts in China to the CEO role in both Romania and South Africa. He remains enthused about the brand’s offerings, even arriving at our interview pulling a basket filled with items from the store.
He has worked at the helm of Decathlon in the UK since the beginning of 2020, just as the UK descended into social distancing and stay-home mandates. Against this backdrop, hours outdoors became something treasured during seemingly endless periods of lockdown, and demand for sporting apparel and equipment boomed online.
Although sales across the Decathlon group as a whole fell 6% in 2020 to €11.4bn (£10.14bn) and net profit edged down 0.8% to €550m (£489.4m) as the pandemic closed stores, the group’s online sales climbed 19% to €2.2bn, according to Retail Week Prospect.
Mazillier was satisfied to see this increased interest in sport amid the pandemic. “People who discovered sport, even indoor fitness, during the pandemic have continued.”
Walking through the Surrey Quays store, which was the first Decathlon outlet to open in the UK in 1999, offers glimpses of the sporting activities that have captured the hearts of Decathlon’s consumers.
Even on a quiet Tuesday morning in the middle of the summer holidays in August, a child whizzes past on a skateboard, while a man cycles his bicycle into the store and directly over to the repair unit.
“If you want to find these people, do not look in their homes. They will be here”
Eric Mazillier, Decathlon UK
Upstairs, a man practises his swing in a virtual simulator under the watchful eyes of the store’s resident golf pro, while pairs of regulars compete at the table tennis tables. “If you want to find these people, do not look in their homes,” Mazillier tells me as we observe the battle. “They will be here.”
Mazillier is eager that the store is not just a place to purchase products – he wants its draw to be the customer experience and community feel, and he hopes to achieve this by presenting consumers with the opportunity to directly engage in activities in-store.
The tennis court on the roof of the Surrey Quays branch hosts tennis lessons, and there are Pilates and gym classes in the dedicated studio space throughout the week, as well as fishing events at the Canada Water fishery nearby.
“During school holidays, it was crazy. It was full, full of children, because we organised a lot of events and that was a pleasure, even for us,” Mazillier laughs.
‘Originality and online’
Decathlon has recently experimented with a variety of store formats across the UK, opening four new stores so far in 2021, bringing its total number nationally to 46. The sporting goods giant opened a new flagship store in Leeds in March, spanning 35,000 sq ft, that offered ‘click and drive’ services during lockdown and now allows customers to interact with products in large open showrooms, as well as repair items such as bikes, kayaks and tents.
In May, Decathlon opened a new smaller-format store spread across 10,000 sq ft in Bromley, which showcases the brand’s eco-friendly offerings. The retailer also made its first foray into the Welsh market in June via a concession within a Tesco in Cardiff.
Mazillier says it is more important than ever for retailers to have a varied store estate in order to attract shoppers to visit.
“In the past, it was possible to have one concept and, after, to copy-paste. All retailers did that, but today we cannot work like that”
Eric Mazillier, Decathlon UK
“What is important to us is to have a full panel of options. In the past, it was possible to have one concept and, after, to copy-paste. All retailers did that, but today we cannot work like that.”
“The future of each retailer is originality and is online. And after, we have to redefine what is the added value of a store in this ecosystem,” he continues. “Why do we continue to open stores? What do we want to bring to the local population?”
“The target is not to open 10,000 stores – just to see locally if it makes sense to open a touchpoint and in which kind of format,” he adds.
Mazillier is also aware of the importance of the online channel in any consumer’s purchasing decisions. “It’s impossible now to split the business between online and stores. As a customer, you are not exclusive.
“Most people, before they come into the store, spend hours on the internet, sometimes we order online, sometimes we order online to click and collect.”
For Mazillier, Decathlon’s biggest challenge in the next few years will be to create a seamless omnichannel approach that removes all barriers and encourages this emerging approach to purchasing.
Already, the company has commenced this mission, adding QR codes to labels in-store so that customers can immediately view information about the product online.
Decathlon has also launched an online marketplace in recent months, marking the retailer selling third-party brands for the first time.
The move to add thousands of products from partners, including Adidas and Speedo, was designed to make the widest range of sports products available to UK consumers. This followed a similar launch in Belgium, where the marketplace currently accounts for 8.5% of all sales on the Belgian site.
“Today, it is impossible for a company to manage everything,” Mazillier observes. “If we need some things, the best way is to challenge and to work with the stronger guy, the most relevant guy within the same ecosystem.”
Sustainability and sport
One area that Mazillier remains particularly conscious of is sustainability and its undeniable links to sport. As an avid cyclist and surfer, he has seen the impact that growing levels of plastic waste and litter have had on the environment. “When you do sports, you cannot be blind for a long time,” he says.
The retailer has launched a resale initiative called Second Life in stores. Created by Sheffield store manager Nick Connell, the programme aims to bring a second life to slightly damaged products or ones returned to the store. By July, three months after the beginning of the initiative, Decathlon had sold 1,200 previously returned items on its website, saving 240,000kg of CO2 on the production of their equivalent in new items.
The company has also pledged to have 100% of its products made with an eco-design strategy which focuses on materials, manufacturing and distribution by 2026, as well as a strategy to repair and resell all possible products by that time.
Although Mazillier is acutely aware that eyes are on businesses to see what they are doing to become more sustainable and combat climate change, he is wary of greenwashing and alienating shoppers with lofty pledges.
“We don’t talk a lot, we do. And after, we share what we do, because it could be useful for competitors. We walk in this direction, and afterwards we will be happy to share step-by-step but when it will be done.”
Having reflected on his years with Decathlon, Mazillier concludes: “It’s like in sport – you can be at the top, but that doesn’t mean anything. Enjoy it, but the day after that, it’s finished.”
“You have to continue to work, you have to continue to challenge, you have to keep humility. That is a sports mindset.”
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