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Published
Dec 23, 2016
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Nike to stop supplying small Singapore retailers in 2017

Published
Dec 23, 2016

Nike will reportedly stop supplying smaller sports retailers in Singapore from January, 2017, in a bid to appear more appealing to larger retailers and boost online sales in the region.

According to the Business Times, several owners of smaller retail stores located in Singapore's Queensway Shopping Centre and Peninsula Plaza, see it as a huge blow, with the retailers relying on top-selling brands like Nike to attract customers.


Another motive behind the change could bepart of Nike's plan to grow its online stores in the region, said retailers

"Its move would force many of us, some of whom had been operating since the 1970s and 1980s, out of business soon," Gurbachan Singh, manager of sports retailer Salam & Sons, told the Business Times.

"We did business with Nike for more than 20 years. We followed their rules, never defaulted on payments nor brought in fake or parallel imports. Many of us don't understand why they are doing this to us," Singh added.

According to Mark Penu, managing director of Premier Sports International, which markets and distributes sports merchandise, Nike has made the move to butter up the major sports retailers and "to get into bed with the big chains like Weston and Sports Link," he told BT.

Another motive behind the change could be part of Nike's plan to grow its online stores in the region, said retailers.

Last year, Nike announced to investors its plans to grow online sales 600 per cent by fiscal 2020 to US$7 billion. Currently, e-commerce represents only 2 per cent of its total sales of US$30.6 billion, and Nike projects that portion to grow to around 14 per cent in the next five years.

Nike continues to command strong revenues on the Asian continent. Last quarter, Nike's sales in Greater China rose 12 percent to $1.06 billion in the latest quarter. Excluding the impact of currency changes, sales in the region jumped 17 percent.

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