World Cup brings mixed fortunes for German retailers

Business News

World Cup brings mixed fortunes for German retailers

Berlin, July 8 (DPA) As the World Cup draws to a close with Sunday's final between Italy and France here, German retailers are slowly removing footballs and flags from their display windows and assessing the effect the tournament has had on business.

Everyone from individual chemists to publicly listed companies had been hoping for a boost from the month-long sporting festival, but it appears some retail branches did markedly better than others.

Host nation Germany's run to the semi-final stages was a boon to T-shirt and German flag-makers while beer and fan articles also sold exceptionally well. Other winners include electronics retailers, who enjoyed an increase in the sale of top-of-the-range television sets, and sports goods retailers.

For example, World Cup sponsor Adidas has sold 15 million official tournament 'teamgeist' footballs while 1.5 million German team jerseys have been snapped up by fans - nearly six times the figure sold during the 2002 World Cup.

Helped by non-stop sunshine, bars and beer gardens were full on match days while over two million foreign visitors came to Germany, twice as many as hoped for.

The country's rail network has carried 15 million passengers in the last month, five million more than usual, while German airline Lufthansa registered 200,000 more passengers than in the same period last year.

However, Germany's afternoon matches led to a slump in the number of shoppers while games were in progress and there was a smaller than expected number of people taking advantage of the extended opening hours for the tournament.

Cinemas also suffered as non-stop football meant little time for other leisure activities.

In total, Germany's retailers expect an increase in turnover somewhere in the region of two billion euros ($2.5 billion).

'As expected, the World Cup hasn't brought about an economic miracle,' said Dirk Ulbricht from the Ifo Institute for market research in Munich.

Latest News

Star stuff

World Cup brings mixed fortunes for German retailers