In Ukraine, a large chain of sports stores Athletics, which operated in 15 cities of the country, is closing down. In total, 29 retail outlets operated under the brand.
The company's CEO, Lyudmila Knysh, explained in an interview with RAU that the formal decision was made back in June 2025 by the board of directors after a series of budget stress tests. The reason was serious financial problems that could not be overcome even after a number of optimization measures.
According to Knysh, the management tried to bring the business to at least minimal profitability. To do this, they closed loss-making stores, relied on online sales, changed the assortment to a more accessible and popular one, and also reduced warehouse and energy costs.
" Some of the measures have had an effect, but the scale of online revenue and margins is not enough to compensate for the decline in offline traffic and the increase in fixed costs ," the manager noted.
According to her, the worst option would be to continue operating at a loss, accumulating debt and involving employees and partners in problems. Therefore, the board of directors decided to “honestly acknowledge reality and close down properly.”
Let us remind you that Athletics has a complicated history. Previously, the chain operated under the brand "Sportmaster" and belonged to Russian owners. After rebranding, control passed to the Singaporean company Felix Trade, and Igor Chernov became the beneficiary.
Thus, one of the largest players in sports retail is finally leaving the Ukrainian market, leaving behind an example of how war, falling demand, and expensive resources have destroyed even a large-scale business.
