We advised Decathlon Lietuva, the Lithuanian subsidiary of Decathlon, upon negotiating a commercial lease agreement for premises in Estonia, necessary for Decathlon’s entry into the Estonian sports goods market.
Major market player
Decathlon is the world’s largest seller of sports products. It has more than 2,080 stores and more than 93,000 employees in 56 countries. In 2021, the group’s turnover was USD 11.4 billion. Previously, the closest store to Estonia was located in Riga.
The first Estonian Decathlon will open in the newly built Kurna shopping park next to the freshly opened IKEA store in Rae, Estonia, just 10 minutes from Tallinn city centre.
The Kurna shopping park is the first of its kind in Estonia, where all retail spaces have a direct entrance from the parking area. Overall, the concept of a retail park is widely developing in Europe, offering minimal overall costs and allowing merchants to conveniently use the retail space as an e-store distribution centre.
Our services and client team
We advised the client mostly on matters concerning liability and termination of the agreement, as well as other standard issues, including, for instance, negotiating the force majeure clause, which has become particularly relevant in the last years due to the COVID pandemic.
Our advice helped the client move forward towards bringing its brand and production to Estonia, shaking the conservative Estonian market of sports goods retailers.
Our partner Paul Künnap, senior associate Mirjam Vichmann and associate Elina Mizerova were involved in the negotiations.
