Forzani's Locker Room. . .
In 1974, John Forzani, current Chairman of the Board for The Forzani Group Ltd. (“FGL”), along with three Calgary Stampeder team-mates opened a 1,200 square foot retail location in Calgary known as "Forzani's Locker Room". The business grew steadily allowing the Company to expand its initial athletic footwear business to include clothing, licensed apparel and sports equipment.
In 1988, the Corporation expanded by adding the RnR, Relaxed and Rugged banner, a new concept specializing in leisure and recreational footwear and apparel.
The Company continued to expand with the acquisition of Sport Chek International Ltd. in 1991 and the acquisition of Hogarth's Sport & Ski in 1992, both larger sport superstores with hardgood categories, such as skis, golf and bikes. In August 1993, the Company concluded its initial public offering at which time annual gross revenues had grown to more than $70 million.
In April 1994, the Company acquired all of the issued and outstanding shares of Sports Experts Inc., a national sporting goods retailer. With this acquisition, the Company became Canada's largest specialty sporting goods retailer with 260 stores and annual gross revenues of approximately $266 million.
In 1995, the Company aggressively expanded with 32 new store openings and 11 store conversions outside of Western Canada. The Company implemented a number of initiatives including: restructuring the Company's operations into a corporate division and a franchise division; augmenting the senior management team and enhancing the Company's capital structure.
In 1997 and 1998, the Company launched new formats for both its corporate and franchise divisions. These new formats created an exciting and entertaining in-store environment, unparalleled in sporting goods retailing in Canada. The Company has since increased its market share from 7.7% in calendar 1995 to over 14% in calendar 2000.
In July 1999, FGL was granted the exclusive North American rights to develop, market and offer for sale Intersport private label products. Also in 1999, RnR was franchised and now operates as RnR Outdoors.
In June 2000, FGL acquired Coast Mountain Sports, a premiere outdoor lifestyle banner.
In August 2001, the Company acquired Sport Mart and www.sportmart.ca, an opening to mid price point banner.
Today, The Forzani Group Ltd. is Canada's largest retailer of sporting goods, offering a comprehensive assortment of brand name and private-brand products across all category price points, operating stores from coast to coast under six corporate banners and is also a franchisor under 11 franchise banners.
