International sporting brand Decathlon has opened its biggest store yet this week in Auburn, New South Wales.
It is the second Decathlon outlet to open in Australia.
The store opening forms part of the brand's expansion plans for Australia.
It will be opening up five new stores in Victoria within the next two years with its first two stores due to open in Melbourne in Box Hill South and Knoxfield before Christmas.
Decathlon opened its first store in Tempe late last year.
It has since sold over 60,000 items on average per month, attracted 500,000 visitors per month and sold over 600,000 items to date in total including online sales.
Originating from France, the brand is one of the world's largest sporting retailers.
It has over 1,200 stores across the globe in 30 plus countries and more than 80,000 staff worldwide.
Decathlon Australia's CEO Olivier Robinet said the brand wanted to build momentum in Australia following the success of its Tempe store.
“We are extremely pleased to open our second store in Auburn, Sydney's thriving west, and to be expanding our presence across Australia.
“Building on the success of our website and our first store in Tempe, Sydney, we want to maintain the momentum by opening further stores across Australia every year.
“The people of Australia have embraced our brand and we are excited about this.
“The opening our our Auburn store and announcement of further store openings in Victoria confirms our commitment to the Australian market and demonstrates our passion to share our wonderful brand with as many Australians as possible.
“In keeping with our generous warehouse design, the new Auburn store is our biggest store yet reaching just over 4,000 square metres in size, representing over 70 sports and carrying more than 7,000 different products, with walls and aisles lined with an endless array of unique and innovative items.”
Robinet said that the brand's launch in the Australian market filled the gap between affordability and quality.
“Australians are some of the most active people in the world, the whole country is like a playground!
“Prior to our arrival, many Australians had to spend hundreds of dollars to get a quality product. Decathlon has now changed this.
“We offer quality products at affordable prices with great service and interactive experiences in-store.
“Customers can try and test out our wonderful products in our 'active zones' and even take products home to try them for up to a week.”
He also said that with the expansion, the retailer is employing up to 100 people per store.
“We employ many local staff and our whole team is focused on assisting customers to fall in love with sport and benefit from our great products, affordable prices and wonderful service.
“In fact, our expansion means that we will be providing jobs for hundreds of Australians. Each store employs up to 100 people.
“I encourage everyone to go to our website as we are currently hiring for our new stores in Sydney and Melbourne.
“We also source services through local suppliers.”
The brand is also focused on supporting the local community.
The front of each store includes a large community sporting area where sporting clubs can showcase their sports and undertake sign up days.
An additional area also enables local sporting organisations to host BBQs and other events for fundraising.
“The people of Australia are falling love with Decathlon.
“We are all about contributing to the local community and assisting Australians to participate in sport.”