At DELIVER Middle East 2026, Sally Zikri, CFO of Decathlon Egypt, joined Michael Boutros for a deep dive into how finance, supply chain, and legal teams must operate as a single system to enable sustainable retail growth. In a globally integrated organisation, isolated decision-making can quickly create bottlenecks across availability, cash flow, and customer experience.

Decathlon operates across the full value chain — from product conception and manufacturing through logistics, retail, and ecommerce. With most products designed and produced internally, even small changes in pricing, delivery timing, or inventory decisions can have significant financial, tax, and operational consequences across multiple entities.

Sally highlighted how finance decisions directly influence supply chain outcomes. Delaying procurement to protect cash flow can lead to missed seasons, excess stock holding costs, and margin erosion. Conversely, over-ordering to secure availability can trap cash and inflate inventory risk — particularly in seasonal and fashion-driven categories.

A key theme of the session was governance. In vertically integrated groups, value does not follow physical goods — it follows contracts. Transfer pricing, intercompany loans, and internal pricing structures must be carefully designed to balance compliance, profitability, and operational flexibility across jurisdictions.

Michael Boutros emphasised that contracts are not administrative formalities, but operational tools. Clear intercompany agreements help manage risk, cash flow distribution, tax exposure, and dispute resolution — particularly when multiple subsidiaries depend on one another to deliver products to market.

The panel reinforced that sustainable growth depends on collaboration. Finance, supply chain, legal, and commercial teams must understand each other’s constraints and incentives. Shared forecasting, aligned KPIs, and transparency around inventory lifetime, markdown strategy, and renewal cycles enable faster, better decisions.

Beyond financial sustainability, the discussion also touched on circular business models, product buy-back, repair, and second-life initiatives. These models require tight coordination between finance, supply chain, and legal teams to remain compliant while supporting customer trust and environmental responsibility.

Decathlon’s experience shows that finance and supply chain are not parallel functions. When they operate as business partners — supported by strong governance and legal structure — they become a powerful engine for scalable, resilient growth.