Nuance and Hellenic in Olympic joint venture

Print Article E-Mail Article

The two companies are to sell official Athens Olympics merchandise through several outlets across the city during this summer's games

The Nuance Group is to be the majority partner in a joint venture to operate about 100 retail outlets in Greece during the Athens Olympic Games and the Paralympics this summer. The Swiss operator will partner Concepts Sports International and Hellenic Distributions?a subsidiary of Hellenic Duty Free Shops?in the venture, in which Nuance will hold a 50.1% share.

The partnership will run stores at 41 competition venues and at 20 Paralympics locations. It will also run a 3,500sq m (37,660sq ft) Olympic Superstore in the Athens Olympic Sports Complex, plus a number of mobile stores along the route of the torch relay. Nuance has been awarded the retail licence for all official Athens 2004 merchandise, and already runs six Olympic Stores at airport and downtown locations in the Greek capital.

Hellenic Distributions is to provide support through its logistics network, warehousing facilities and sales staff. Concept Sports has experience of ?event retailing? through its involvement in the Games at Sydney in 2000 and Salt Lake City in 2002.