The Portuguese companies Cork, Volt, Globo and Quad have competed with the Spanish and Argentine domain in the commercialization of paddle tennis rackets, capturing business opportunities motivated by the worldwide projection of the modality.
“We are a reference and we are very happy that these brands are good and have quality. We have an image of competence and things well done. It is a sign that the modality is growing in Portugal and already has a certain dimension”, the president of the Portuguese Padel Federation (FPP), Ricardo Oliveira, told the Portuguese agency.
Located in Santa Catarina da Serra, a town in the Leiria district, Cork has become the “first brand manufactured in Portugal” since 2016, as a result of the will of Pedro Plantier, the first national champion of this sport, to “solve a problem with the rackets”.
“I was sponsored by various brands and I felt something was wrong as they vibrated, broke easily and made my arms ache. I always had the dream of having my own brand, but I never knew how to do it. Until I met Nicolau Silva at Clube VII, in Lisbon, which I explored. He was playing with a very strange racket, which looked like a log of wood, as if he was testing a prototype,” he said.
Pedro Plantier also tried it and got “good feelings”, challenging the then dental technician to “reduce vibrations and weight, add aesthetic details and make the following versions of the artisan product more appetizing”, which was in the genesis of Cork.
“We are not geniuses, but we invested a lot in quality and we improved until we had the Ferrari, Porsche or Mercedes of rackets. Then there is the aesthetic linked to cork, a Portuguese material that, by itself, has many properties of consistency, durability and vibration. We have a unique product”, said the founding partner and technical director of FPP.
Represented by the best Portuguese and international athletes, such as the Spanish-Argentine Roby Gattiker, 11 times world champion, Cork involves 21 employees in offering eight categories of rackets and a new collection every 18 months, with a turnover of 1, 1 million euros (ME ) in 2021, with 90% of exports to 33 countries.
“We grew 39% in 2022 and surpassed the production record for rackets per month in October, with 1,013. We are growing sustainably, but with our feet on the ground, showing all that is good in Portugal. It is likely that we will soon be the first national brand of paddle tennis products to have a quality certificate”, exclaimed Pedro Plantier, the first Portuguese athlete to dedicate himself professionally to this sport.
The same period of activity presents Volt, which Pedro Brito e Cunha launched in Porto with a “perspective of taking small steps”, seeking to “understand if the project had traction in the market to create a structure with some weight around the brand”. .
“When I was looking for a racket, it was very difficult for me to distinguish between the 20 or 30 that the brands offered, since the concepts were very similar and the differences were few. We try to have an easy to understand range, with things in our image, through which we can add value”, said the founder and CEO.
Volt preferred to “communicate in English” and have a “relatively small portfolio” to stand out for its “very careful design” and capture “the player who wants to invest in a good second racket”, before undergoing a “great transformation” in the pandemic of the coronavirus covid-19.
“From the beginning, a very important goal was to have the most global representation possible. In 2021, we had around 700,000 euros of turnover, a growth of 300% compared to 2020, and 85% of sales from exports. We are talking about 45 countries, within which there are some more relevant blocks, such as the Middle East, Nordic and Central Europe or America. Two years before, sales in the national market represented between 75% and 80% and we were in six or seven countries”, compared Pedro Brito e Cunha.
Sponsor of Ana Catarina Nogueira, national champion and Portuguese number two in the world ‘ranking’, Volt wants to “expand its internationalization and materialize the potential of some new markets”, at a time when it closed 2022 with 1.3 ME of turnover.
The company “outsources production” and launched its first line of clothing and accessories for paddle tennis players, a trend shared with its three Portuguese competitors, such as Globo, which uses “recyclable materials” in favor of “a very complete range”.
“We appeared strongly and entered the market with five types of rackets. The idea was that soon we could give an answer to reach a greater number of people, in this perspective that paddle tennis is a sport for everyone. The challenge has always been to combine quality with price, and the blades end up having a higher value than our average positioning in terms of price”, said commercial manager Hugo Terroso.
Inserted in Sintra since 2019, Globo “exports at an interesting rate” to Europe, Angola, the United Arab Emirates or Chile, but prioritizes the consolidation of the relationship “between clubs, coaches and club clients” at the national level to “reach the hands of the people.”
“This investment has to be directed at the needs of the people. It is not because someone is starting that they should have a bad team, but with features that make sense. Padel is a sport of control and consistency. If we don’t have a racket that helps us in an initial phase and can then follow our evolution, it can generate some frustration and condition the first impact”, warned Hugo Terroso.
With the same intention within the internal market, Quad has advanced, which focused on carbon to build a racket business in Braga in 2021, where it tries to dilute the supremacy of China and Pakistan, responsible for 95% of world production sold.
“It’s the difference between performance and power: a racket with a lot of performance is easier to play behind [do campo] and a harder one gives acceleration to the ball. The ideal is to have this balance, which is not part of the concerns of these factories, but which allows us to have a racket with unique playing characteristics”, admitted the founder Vasco Carvalho, speaking of an “absurd investment” to autonomize production in the seventh month of activity.
The discovery of a partner accelerated this “madness” of the Quad, which brings together 10 elements in the factory and supports Diogo Rocha, Catarina Vilela and Fábio Gomes, leaders of the FPP male, female and mixed rankings, respectively, eager to win 1.5 ME in 2023, when, with its expansion to Latin America and Africa, it will serve 22 nations.
“There is no sport that allows an individual of 30, 40, 50, 60 or 70 years to return to high competition and train during the week. There is no sport in the world that has this kind of ease, enthusiasm and charm. There is an extra motivation from people who train and want to be better to be able to do tournaments”, concluded Vasco Carvalho.
Source: Observadora
