GNC and The Forzani Group Partnership
In the U.S. you can find a GNC store in nearly every mall in every city. In fact, GNC has more than 5,200 retail locations throughout the U.S. (including 944 franchise and 1,733 Rite Aid store-within-a-store locations). However, the situation in Canada is quite different. At last count, a source told me that GNC had only 143 stores to cover all of Canada which for those of you not familiar with Canada, we have a population of just over 33 million people! That’s not nearly enough locations to service the people. Well all that is about to change…
Forzani Group
The Forzani Group is Canada’s largest national retailer of sporting goods, operating stores under the following banners: Sport Chek, Coast Mountain Sports, Sport Mart, National Sports, Athletes World, Sports Experts, Intersport, Econosports, Atmosphere, Tech Shop/Pegasus, Nevada Bob’s Golf, Hockey Experts, S3 and Fitness Source.
GNC WIll Be Going Inside A Sporting Store Near You!
The Forzani Group and GNC this past summer announced a partnership that will put GNC stores within Forzani’s sporting stores! The first pilot market will be in Calgary, Alberta this fall.
“This is the result of discussions which began in 2008 with the GNC team and is viewed by our company as a key strategic initiative,” said Bob Sartor, CEO of Forzani Group. After the pilot, a full rollout will be planned for 2010.
Gilles Houde, President GNC Canada said, “FGL’s sports performance heritage, along with its national presence and strong market share makes it the ideal partner for our premier brand of performance nutrition products.” GNC, headquartered in Pittsburgh.
Final Thoughts
This move will place pressure on rival supplement retail store chain POPEYE’S who have been going toe to toe with GNC in Canada for quite some time now. According to their website, POPEYE’S has over 60 locations across Canada. This will also allow GNC to better compete with WAL-MART which moves a great deal of sport nutrition and weight-loss supplements.
