European outdoor shows growth of 3.1% in 2013

By

Olivier Guyot

Published
Jul 12, 2014

Footwear appears to be the Outdoor industry’s flagship sector with sales growing by 4.6% in terms of value. That’s one of the findings from the European Outdoor Group’s latest study, which gathered information from more than 100 brands from all over Europe, to illustrate the state of the market in 2013.

The European market as a whole accounted for 15 billion euros last year. Wholesale made up 4.8 billion euros, while retail exceeded 10 billion. Overall, the sector showed a 3.1% increase in value compared to 2012. In terms of volume, it showed a 2.8% increase.

The dynamics were of course different by region, with Eastern Europe and Russia rising sharply, and somewhat of an improvement for Southern Europe and the UK. The largest three European markets included Germany, which made up a quarter of the market, the UK (13.4%) and France (12.2%).

Last year, the only product category that had somewhat of a hiccup was equipment. Sale of tents grew 1.3% in value but were down 0.7% in volume. The market has grown for all other categories.

Footwear rose by 4.6% in value, textiles by 2.8%, bags by 2.2%, accessories by 2.3%, sleeping bags by 1.4% and climbing equipment by 0.8%.
Representatives from EOG note that the positive results will allow European players in the outdoor sector to expand internationally.