Sportega CEO Lukáš Lesovský turns around a Czech sports e-shop

Lukáš Lesovský, 37, CEO and marketing director of the Czech online sporting goods retailer Sportega, has explained how in three years he turned a company on the brink of survival into a profitable business growing by more than 20% a year. He now plans to double turnover to CZK 1.6–1.8 billion and expand into markets across Europe.

When Lesovský joined Sportega in March 2023 (he had previously worked at the agency OxyShop), the company was struggling. After the Covid boom the market cooled, then war broke out in Ukraine, and inflation and energy prices rose. At the start of 2023 the numbers stopped adding up: more than half of the warehouse was taken up by goods from unsellable categories, and margins were falling. The firm cut costs, shrank its team and warehouse, and lowered prices every two weeks, sometimes below purchase cost. Founder Josef Mech said at the time: “All we were missing was the plague.”

Since September 2023 Lesovský has run the company as CEO while keeping his post as marketing director. He named clearing out warehouse stock as the first task: the company needed a “starting line” from which it could buy new goods again and stay in the black. The second stage was turning Sportega into a brand with added value: an ecosystem of content and new services is being built around the shop, and budget is being shifted from performance marketing to branding. “We don’t want to be just a reseller who moves boxes,” he says. Winning the efficiency race is pointless, he argues: giants like Amazon will always pack a box more cheaply.

What has changed in the ownership structure. A year ago the Enterstore group, part of Andrej Babiš’s Hartenberg Capital fund, raised its stake in Sportega from 50.1% to 87.5%. Founders Josef Mech and Martin Došek were left with 7.5% and 5% respectively.

Key figures today:

— the company is stabilised, profitable and growing by more than 20% a year;
— Sportega operates in 17 countries, and the Czech Republic accounts for only a quarter of revenue; German-speaking markets are especially successful;
— within three years the goal is to enter every European country and double turnover to CZK 1.6–1.8 billion;
— Lesovský admits that Decathlon and Sportisimo are many times larger in the Czech Republic alone, but believes Sportega is growing faster and the gap will narrow.

In an interview with CzechCrunch, Lesovský also talks about how the company uses artificial intelligence: according to him, AI already saves Sportega a lot of money, although spending on it is growing seven times faster than the business itself. He is also convinced that AI will change online shopping more slowly than is commonly believed. Topics of the conversation include competition with established players in Germany, plans for new sports and the possible role of new acquisitions.