In this exclusive interview with SGI Europe, Nicolas Préault, CEO of Tecnifibre since 2018, explains what the company’s targets are, how they want to triple net sales until 2025 and he mentions significant growth numbers for the sport of padel.
Since during the interview the Grand Slam tournament in Paris was taking place, Préault always kept an eye on the ticker to see what the Tecnifibre players and favorites Daniil Medvedev and Iga Swiatek were doing.
SGI: How important are Daniil and Iga for your strategy as a brand?
Nicolas Préault: Athletes are key in the sports business. It’s even more important for us as we define Tecnifibre as a player’s company – inside and outside. It’s essential to have athletes like Daniil and Iga, who are more than just players; they are ambassadors and represent the brand values.
Who will be the next rising star? With Iga and Daniil, you obviously made a really good choice?
You are right. We have two top players in the top 50, and Daniil is currently number two in the world (number one next week), Iga is number one. Not bad in terms of efficiency. We invest a lot of time in scouting to identify new talents globally and have set up a specific plan with Lacoste called “Les Petits Crocos.” So we have very good team players between the ages of ten and 14, who we will accompany on their way to the top. Once they make it, like Daniil and Iga, we start specific collaboration.
Tennis and growth
Tennis is on the upswing. Do you expect further growth opportunities?
Right after the Covid breakout, we saw an increasing number of beginners and also many returnees – here in Europe and everywhere else in the world. It’s very positive for us as a tennis brand. It also helps that tennis is a very media-friendly sport and accessible to a broad audience. There are millions of fans in front of the TV during a Grand Slam. We benefit from that. In general, we are in a positive business environment, having increased our sales by 30 percent in 2021 compared to 2019, which was already a record year. And in the first five months of 2022, we are up 50 percent compared to the same time last year.
What does that mean in absolute figures?
When I joined Tecnifibre at the beginning of 2018, right after the acquisition by Lacoste, net sales were €22 million. We reached €28 million at the end of 2021 and we plan to triple that in 2025 and reach up to €85 million. We truly are a start-up company in the racket industry.
But with a long history…
Yes, and that’s important. When I joined the company, I said, “we will not start a new project from scratch.” We need to understand 40 years of corporate history to see what we will do in the next 40 years. And that’s the point. I regularly have lunch with Thierry Maissant, the founder and former CEO of Tecnifibre. It’s to share my vision with him and profit from his experience.
The relationship between Tecnifibre and Lacoste
You have the heritage and the expertise on the Tecnifibre side. And now you get more and more intertwined with the Lacoste brand. How does this influence your strategy and action plan?
One of the reasons for Tecnifibre’s existence within the MF Brands Group (which also includes Lacoste, The Kooples, Gant and Aigle) is its positioning as an expert in performance sports. This is what we have been demonstrating since 2018. Lacoste has entrusted us with the specialized global distribution of tennis and golf from the spring/summer 2022 collection onwards, and it turns out that the results are very good so far. We are all enthusiastic about this, so much so that we are going to widen our spectrum of action because we are also going to intervene in other territories so that in the long term the distribution of Lacoste products for tennis and golf players really covers the whole world. Initially, we wanted to build up experience in the territories we mastered well with direct intervention (United States, Spain, Portugal, France, Austria, etc.). We have built up a solid experience and we will also be able to work with countries that are driven by the Tecnifibre brand via distributors.
The growth of padel
Let’s move on to another success story: Padel. To what extent does this sport contribute to Tecnifibre’s growth?
Padel is booming as l have never seen a sport boom before. The increase in Tecnifibre’s padel category this year is 400 percent, which is downright grotesque. It is so strong that it is very difficult to analyze and plan for. Padel is already very well established and still booming in Spain and Portugal. It’s booming in Germany and very strong in Scandinavia. And it will soon be booming in North America and Asia. It will be a global sport.
Why do you think so?
It’s not so expensive to set up padel courts. And it’s very easy to play; it’s fun, accessible and very social.
Will padel overtake tennis in the long run?
It already has in Spain, which used to be a very important market for tennis. Today the country sees much more padel than tennis players. That may not happen everywhere in the world, but padel definitely has a very positive future.
Tecnifibre: Sales are ok - but the supply chain is key
We talked about growth, but there are also challenges, like the supply chain.
We are happy that books are full, but supply chain-wise, it’s a bit more complicated. It’s the same for everybody. The key to driving our business to €85 million is now more about how we manage the supply chain. I spend a lot of time working with my team to set up the right pool of suppliers and transportation companies. We have two main problems to manage. First, it’s the availability of the product. Second, it’s the overall cost. Costs are going up in every part of the supply chain. So we have to renegotiate over and over again.
Does this mean you need to change the way you work with your suppliers and partners?
As an example, we have reinforced our collaboration with a string supplier from France and signed a specific exclusivity contract. Second example, we have finally decided to keep our own tennis and padel ball factory in Thailand. This gives us more control over our racquet suppliers. We have also set up a new pool of racquet suppliers with long-term partnerships. Close partnerships are key.
Babolat, Head, Wilson and then Tecnifibre and Yonex
What is your vision for the brand?
We are tennis players and competitors. We love to meet challenges, but we want those challenges to be real. The wish for Tecnifibre is to be one of the major premium brands in tennis. We already achieved this in squash. The top three brands in tennis today are Babolat, Head and Wilson. And then there are Yonex and Tecnifibre. We want a place at the top. That’s why we must continue to invest in our athletes, our products and our team to bring our products to the whole world.
