Babolat will certainly join SGI's sports equipment chart next year. In contrast to the relatively flat state of the world tennis market, the French company continues to grow at a double-digit rate, gaining market shares in several categories and several countries. Company officials feel that it may have even beaten Wilson in the global market for tennis racquets in 2012, although they are not quite sure because the two brands consolidate their figures differently. In any case, according to observers, the French company stands a good chance of attaining the leadership this year or next with the launch of a groundbreaking electronic “Babolat Play” technology.
Babolat claims to be already the world leader in tennis strings and stringing machines, but not yet in balls. In strings, it's number two in France in terms of value after its French rival in the category, Tecnifibre, but number one in volume, and according to Yano Research, it beat Gosen in its domestic Japanese market last year in value as well as in volume. Anyhow, the broad geographical reach of the brand, its focus on performance and its presence in numerous product categories that are not covered by other tennis brands to the same extent have already made Babolat a likely world leader in terms of value in a global tennis market estimated to be worth €1.2 billion a year at retail.
Babolat sells 1.7 million racquets per year. After growing by 13 percent in the financial year ended on June 30, 2012, Babolat's total sales are expected to rise by around 11 percent to €160 million for the year ending next June, with racquets representing half of the total turnover. There will be increases in volume and value in all the product categories. Sales of tennis shoes, the newest product segment for the company, should go up by about 20 percent in value and reach a volume of more than 600,000 pairs. Together, shoes and clothing – a category that Wilson is trying to develop in cooperation with other brands of Amer Sports - have come to represent 20 percent of revenues, including income from apparel licenses recently signed in Latin America and Japan.
Geographically, Babolat's performance will likely be mixed, with major sales declines in Spain and Italy more than offset by strong sales increases in the U.S., Japan, China, Latin America and other parts of the world. Babolat is also growing in the U.K. and Germany, where it is not yet number one in racquets. It claims the leadership in racquets in France, the U.S., Japan and Italy. In the past year, the U.S. was the largest single market for the company overall with a turnover of €33.8 million, followed by France with €28.4 million and Japan with €12.9 million.
In the five European countries where it controls the distribution – Germany, Austria, Spain, Italy and the U.K. – Babolat reached sales of €59.4 million last year. The company claims to have gained market shares in all these countries, even in the depressed Spanish market, thanks in part to improved deliveries to more than 5,000 small clients in the region following Babolat's recent €4 million investment in a new partly-automated warehouse, which also requires six to ten times less labor than before for the same volumes.
Originally involved in the manufacture of natural gut strings for musical instruments, the family-owned company entered the tennis market in 1875 by making tennis strings in the same material. It remains the only major supplier of natural gut strings in the world, but it also offers since 1955 a range of strings in synthetic materials, which are cheaper but generally less effective. Claiming that the right choice of the strings is responsible for half of the player's performance on the tennis court, Babolat has established three profiles of tennis players, recommending the most suitable strings for them in the packaging of the products.
In the last years, Babolat has gradually dropped all activities that are not related to racquet sports, including the manufacture of surgical yarns. Under the management of Eric Babolat, who took over the reins of the company in 1998, it moved into tennis racquets in 1995 and tennis balls in 2001. Two years later, Babolat launched its first tennis shoes, developed and co-branded with the famous Michelin tyre company. This continuous diversification and important sponsorships have largely contributed to the company's growth.
Now, the 51-year-old Eric Babolat sees a strong potential for further growth through the planned launch of a new “electronic racquet” technology in the second half of this year and through its development in badminton, a sport where the market is as big as in tennis on a global scale and where the brand's presence is limited to the domestic French market, sharing the leadership with Yonex. Last year it hired a former Prince manager from Malaysia as product manager of its badminton division, but it will probably take more time to see the results of this initiative. Babolat's electronic racquet will come out first, further enhancing the brand's image as an innovator, and its technology may be applied to badminton at a later stage.
Previewed just before the spring 2012 Roland Garros tennis tournaments in Paris and reported in SGI Europe at the time, Babolat's electronic “Play & Connect” technology has been renamed “Babolat Play.” It is expected to give a major boost to the game of tennis, especially among young smartphone and tablet users, because it will allow them and their friends to follow their game improvement scores by measuring the precision with which they strike the ball and other parameters such as ball speed and spin. The technique uses ballistic measurement methods and high-speed internet connections. It is certain to be adopted by numerous tennis coaches who work with professional players or amateurs.
The company has decided to launch its individual scoring technology first at the consumer and tennis club levels because of the lengthy process required to get approval for new measurement guidelines at the professional level. Babolat officials are still in discussion on this point with the International Tennis Federation and cannot yet give a date when spectators will be able to watch a new scoreboard carrying these parameters alongside the classical match scoreboard on the tennis courts or on television. As in Formula One car races, it should make the game more interesting to follow.
