All for Padel (AFP) – the racquet company within AFP Group, which holds the Adidas license to design, manufacture and commercialize pádel racquets, accessories and courts – had been hoping to generate €34 million in sales for 2023. However, this target was revised down to €31 million in September, and ultimately, the company reported €29.1 million in sales, according to CMDsport. This was nevertheless up by 8 percent from the previous year’s €27.3 million.
AFP’s results failed to meet ambitions but were “very good,” CEO José Luís Sicre tells CMDsport, in light of market conditions.
Sicre qualifies 2023 as both “the first year of decline in the history of the pádel market” and “the great liquidation of pádel racquets.” Although AFP, he says, made fewer discounts and implemented them later than any other company. As for the overall market, the decline, according to “a few studies,” was of 18 percent worldwide. Prices went down, and so did the purchasing of new collections.
Trouble in Scandinavia, pleasant surprises in Australia
Exports accounted for 64 percent of AFP’s sales in 2023. Italy was its best customer, after the home country of Spain. Business grew in the Netherlands and Belgium and began to awaken in the UK, while South Africa and Australia were pleasant surprises. Scandinavia, meanwhile, dropped off the list of major customers, with the biggest change coming in the regional leader, Sweden, which was “one of the zones that suffered most” from excessive buying, “and not just in racquets.” More courts were built than the market could absorb, and clubs closed in consequence.
Sicre is “prudent but not pessimistic” with respect to the current year. Demand is not what it had been since the lockdowns but continues to grow. He therefore expects to see €31 to €32 million in sales, or about 10 percent growth.
This month, AFP will be launching its own brand, Lok, in 14 countries, all of them major markets for pádel. The brand will consist of racquets, bags, backpacks, technical and lifestyle apparel and accessories. Sicre calls it a “transgressive” brand, “unbound to pádel’s traditional messages” and directed at “a different generation and spectrum, at the new players.” We reported on these plans back in June.
