Up to 18,000 orders daily in Sportisimo’s new multichannel warehouse

Sportisimo: Europe’s widest selection of sportswear and equipment

Founded in the Czech Republic in 1999, Sportisimo is one of the leading sporting goods chains in Central and Eastern Europe. It has a presence in countries such as Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania. With 233 retail outlets, Sportisimo offers a broad range of products, including clothing, footwear, training equipment and accessories.

Sportisimo, Europe’s largest distributor of sportswear and equipment, stocks over 7 million items and 240,000 SKUs. To support this scale, the company has centralised its operations in a modern logistics hub in Ostrava (Czech Republic). From this facility, Sportisimo manages up to 18,000 orders per day, serving both its brick-and-mortar stores across Central and Eastern Europe as well as online customers throughout the EU. This enables a fast and effective response to multichannel demand.

Before building this distribution centre, Sportisimo organised its logistics operations around three nearby warehouses, each with limited capacity and picking locations. “We needed to optimise our multichannel logistics operations — retail and e-commerce — improve service levels and speed up the flow of goods,” says Michal Bártek, VNA Supervisor at Sportisimo.

The choice of Mecalux as a logistics provider was no coincidence. “We’d worked with them before and had a positive experience. This time, they submitted the best technical proposal and offered deadlines that matched our demanding project schedule,” says Bártek. After years of collaboration, the partnership between the two companies has grown stronger: “Mecalux is a reliable partner, capable of proposing innovative ideas and successfully bringing them to fruition.”

Storage for 71,000 pallets and intensive picking operations

“Every day, we ship orders from the warehouse to physical stores and e-commerce customers across the European Union. Depending on demand, operators fulfil between 3,000 and 18,000 orders a day,” says Bártek.

Sportisimo’s new logistics hub stands out for its high daily flow of sporting goods. It receives 50,000 to 240,000 products and ships between 80,000 and 260,000. Orders can include up to 100,000 lines, underscoring the complexity and flexibility of the company’s multichannel operations.

This new warehouse can hold 71,000 pallets, distributed across 52 aisles ranging from 112 to 120 metres long. “We chose Mecalux’s selective pallet racking because it enables us to store sufficient quantities of products over the medium and long term. The mix of wide and very narrow aisles allows us to optimise space,” says Bártek.

By combining wide and very narrow aisle (VNA) racking layouts, Sportisimo has maximised its storage capacity without compromising accessibility. The distribution centre (DC) was also designed to manage reverse logistics for the retail channel. “The warehouse is equipped to handle returns from our stores in Central and Eastern Europe,” says Bártek.

Sportisimo’s VNA Supervisor explains that the benefits of the new DC were immediate: “Consolidating the logistics processes of the three warehouses into one — along with increasing the number of picking locations — has streamlined the flow of goods and expanded storage capacity. Additionally, this strategy has reduced non-productive tasks in receiving, replenishment and dispatch.”

Ready for the future of retail and e-commerce

Sportisimo’s new hub reaffirms the company’s commitment to a modern, scalable, multichannel supply chain. “We’ve upgraded our logistics operations to ensure greater efficiency and reliability, and we remain focused on ongoing improvement,” says Bártek.

Consolidating the three warehouses into one has streamlined the flow of goods and expanded storage capacity. Additionally, this strategy has reduced non-productive tasks in receiving, replenishment and dispatch.