Paris (AFP)

From the trade in running or cycling equipment to fitness rooms, companies in the French sports sector expect to pay a heavy price for the coronavirus pandemic and hope for a rapid restart of their activities.

The Five, one of the leaders in the rental of 5-a-side and padel football fields, was to inaugurate a new center in Paris this week. Its founder, Joseph Vieville, likes to claim an opening "seven days a week, 365 days a year since we started in 2008". But since March 15, "for the first time, our activity, what feeds us, is dormant", says, a little distraught, the business manager.

"80% of our activity is invoiced on D-day, our cash flow depends only on the opening days", continues Joseph Vieville, who has put in place "a survival plan": partial unemployment for all of the 250 employees, recourse borrowing and negotiations with donors, because the Five, which manages 40 sites in France, does not own its land. "This is by far the most serious crisis that we have known," he summed up to AFP.

According to a study published Wednesday by the Sport and Cycle Union, which represents the sector, sports companies expect a loss of turnover of 3.1 billion euros in the first half of 2020, a drop of 36% compared to 2019, assuming a closure scenario until the end of April.

- Spoiled spring -

According to the organization, which received responses from 900 companies, "98%" of them expect a decline in turnover, of the order of more than 30% in two thirds of the cases. However, 26% of sporting goods sellers, 34% of manufacturers and 14% of merchant leisure companies (gyms, climbing gyms) expect a decline of more than 50% over the period in question.

"With the return of the beautiful days, spring is an essential period for the consumption of sports practices and products. It is a brutal stop," declared the AFP general delegate cycle, Virgile Caillet.

Two sectors are more impacted, "commerce and leisure activities, which go to zero activity. They are often light structures, few employees and not much cash, so we are facing players who will not be able to hold very a long time, "he explains.

Founded in 1875, the manufacturer of strings and racket sports equipment Babolat, is not reviewing its development projects, according to its communications director, Nicolas Benadon. But even if he can not quantify it precisely, he expects a "huge impact on the turnover of March, April, May".

- Restore a dynamic -

The family business, 350 employees including 200 in France, and 80% of its turnover made internationally, has been impacted since January in terms of its supplies from China, then these are now its three sites production in France which are stopped. "We have products in stock, but in any case the stores and clubs are closed, so products available or not, there are not many people to buy them", describes Nicolas Benadon. "For us, the prospect is to be ready for the restart."

According to Virgile Caillet, "no sector is doing well", online sales being faced with "major problems of supply, workforce management and delivery".

"The government was very reactive during the time of the emergency," he said, welcoming the arrangements to facilitate cash loans, short-time working and "tax shifts".

"At the exit, it will also be necessary to restore momentum in a context of deterioration in purchasing power and in companies which will probably be exhausted in terms of cash flow," he also hopes.

According to the Union Sport et Cycle, which claims 1,400 member companies, the crisis will have an "inevitable impact on the sports movement": 60% of companies which support a club, in particular through sponsorship, "tell us that they are not will probably not be able to maintain this support at the start of the school year, 27% will continue but declare that they want to reduce their support "and" only 14% will continue normally ", the study lists.

© 2020 AFP