Manu Garcia: “the padel saved me” |

During an interview with Padel Magazine, Manu Garcia, one of the actors of the padel French, invested in My Padel Store, English Padel Shop and PadelXP, delivered on its report to the padel.

Le padel, a lifeline

I started playing padel long time ago. I was 15, so it's been XNUMX years now.

I was living in Spain and I had big elbow problems when I was playing tennis. As you can imagine, I started with tennis.

My physio was already playing padel at that time, and he offered me to do my rehabilitation in padel. It allowed me to continue exercising. I was unable to play tennis for several months, but I continued to play sports thanks to the padel.

So I started this sport like that and I never stopped. As soon as my elbow problem got better, I took up tennis again. But then I continued to do some padel in addition.

Afterwards, when I arrived in France, in Montpellier, there was no padel. So I eased off for 2-3 years, then I started playing again in 2013-2014 in Lille.

"The competitions are behind me"

The more I play padel, the more money I lose. Because instead of being behind my computer working, I'm playing. And the padel it doesn't bring me anything because today, I'm neither a professional nor a great football player. padel !

And then it's not because it's been a long time that we practice a sport that we are necessarily good! It's been a long time since I started padel, I think I'm doing well, but I'm not a big player either. I did a lot of competitions, and I think I reached the top of my level, of what I was able to do. So today, I don't compete at all.

I do a few tournaments but it's still leisure: P250s or P500s.

Le padel, it's only positive!

I have not experienced any disappointment in the padel. For the moment, it's a sport, a passion that has only brought me positive things. I met some great people so I'm very happy.

Then, regarding my accomplishments in the padel, I think I was lucky enough to be able to work for important players in the padel. I worked for a large website selling equipment for padel.

I also sell tracks of padel. So I think I touched on many facets of the padel whether on the field part, the racket part...

Today, I have several websites and a physical store so I'm pretty happy with the path I've taken and I want to continue to develop it. We also have lots of projects today for France on the sale of snowshoes padel.

For me, it's a pleasure to be able to talk to people every day, to help them by giving them advice, to also learn from them because every day, customers, colleagues teach me new things, and even our competitors teach us things so we all progress together.

The world of padel today it is a group of friends. We all know each other, we all work together and we like each other. I am quite happy to have been able to develop this relationship with this entourage. So the padel frankly for the moment, it's only good.

Slowly yes, but surely

I am one of those who thinks that too fast development is not a good thing. You have to do things well, calmly and above all not rush.

I take the case of Sweden for example where everyone was talking about the explosion of the padel in Sweden.

The point on which I am extremely happy concerning France is the fact that we are moderate concerning the growth of the padel. Admittedly, we still think that we are growing too slowly because we would still like it to go faster, we would like to double the number of pitches in 2 years...

But today if the padel is developing slowly in France, it is because of the large administrative part. We French have this administrative side where you have to do a ton of paperwork before you can open a club, and in the end paradoxically, we are disgusted because we tell ourselves that things are done slowly.

But the growth of padel in France has smoothed out, which means that, for example, if tomorrow there is a fall, it will be less brutal.

We are not going to take a slap like what Sweden is currently taking where the growth has been so exponential that they have found themselves with an excess of structures. This means that today there is a supply much higher than demand in Sweden, which is why clubs close every week, every month. This exponential growth is not a good thing.

And in France, I would personally like things to go a little faster because I think that between the development of France today and the development of Sweden there is a happy medium, this happy medium, we can call it Italy for example. Growth in Italy is much stronger than in France, but much less extreme than in Sweden.

So yes, I would like it to go faster. However, what reassures me is that this moderate growth means that if tomorrow there is stagnation and a loss of momentum in France, it will be moderate. We will not see 70 clubs closing in one year because the number of clubs that closed in 2022 in Sweden was a disaster.

All in all, I'm still happy with the development that the padel in France.

The administrative side, a real hassle

Today, one of the main obstacles to the development of padel for me, it's all this administrative side. That is to say, you have to make an incredible request in order to be able to put a land of padel in a community club.

But on the other hand, in my opinion, this is what will save private individuals since some private individuals are worried about the creation of padel in audiences.

But we must also thank the FFT, because it is an accelerator for the development of padel.

New projects to come

The websites and the store are now my main activity. The site was created at the time by Julien Pes because there was a real demand for a large selection of rackets on the French market.

There was a website that was already established in France, managed by Vincent Brunet, our colleague from Perpignan. He is a huge professional who does an excellent job, but who had a slightly more limited offer.

And there was real demand in France for a large number of brands, compared to Spain, for example, where there were already 500 different racket models.

I was Julien's supplier, that is to say that I sold him a solution that allowed him to have a lot of choice of snowshoes padel. He was very smart and had a very good vision since he realized that there was a very great need in France and that French customers wanted a lot more choice.

So he created a site where from the first day, there were already a lot of rackets for sale. It was a visionary since today, when we look at the French competitors, and we see the new sites that have appeared since Julien in 2019, they all have nearly 300 models.

It was also a great meeting for me. He created the site and I joined him in the wake of post-Covid. We then started to work together, continued to invest in websites: My Padel Store, English Padel The shop, PadelXP also which was created by Régis, my main partner today.

Three websites that work well, we are happy! We have a physical store in Pau which works very well. We opened it a year and a half ago, then expanded after 1 months. This means that the store functioned well and therefore that we were able to double the sales area.

It is Fred Richeme who is the head of cthis shop and who is our site manager on the store, but also on the logistics part.

We have projects in France, including a project which is a little behind schedule in the South of France, but which should come out of the ground in 2023, it is a new store format. And afterwards, we are working to develop a network of franchises in France.

We really want to develop the network and have 10-20-30 French stores Padel Shop on the French territory in franchises !

Eleonore Coulibaly

What a pleasure to be a journalist in the middle of the padel, an attractive growing sport. I hope you enjoy the content offered. See you soon perhaps on the slopes!