On the occasion of World Padel Tour Master Final which was held a few days ago in Barcelona, Padel Magazine met with Nicolas Fauré, CEO Head France and Spain.

Focus on the evolution of padel in France and abroad, global growth in turnover, and analysis of the state of padel in Europe and around the world.

“It will take 10 years for padel to catch up with tennis in France”

“It is undeniable, padel is a big winner of the post-Covid period in the same way as tennis. Today we can talk about a market. For a brand like ours, which has been manufacturing palas for 32 years, we have really seen a leap forward since the Covid-19 epidemic. We are talking about significant figures. Before we were on 0.1% of sales for padel, now we can say that our activity is divided into 2/3 tennis and 1/3 padel”.

Words from the CEO of Head confirm the excellent dynamics in which padel is located. This discipline would have taken up so much space within the Austrian firm that during the seminars, the attention would be focused much more on padel than on tennis.

"I don't believe I have experienced such a situation"

“Yes, it is mainly due to growth. Today, tennis is a mature sport that has stabilized. On the contrary, padel is a discipline in full growth, extremely strong. This phenomenon even surprised all market players. We just went through two years of a crisis of supply versus exponential demand. The general explosion of this sport for 2 years is probably unique in all sports. I've been in the sports industry for 32 years and I don't think I've experienced such a situation.".

Coello window defense Amsterdam Bela 2022
Arturo Coello, the brand's flagship player Head

Spain's lead benefits other countries

“In France, we are around 200-250% increase, to compare with the COVID years of course, but what interests us is long-term growth. We are looking at 7 to 10 years and we think that we will experience an evolution of +20 or +30% per year for 8 years. If we want to make up the difference between padel and tennis, we will need at least 10 years.”

“Today in Spain, the padel business is two and a half times bigger than that of tennis. We are talking about several hundred million euros. Spain is the historical host country of this sport. It is a mature nation in terms of its facilities, its organization of the competition and the teaching of the discipline. It always has a head start that benefits other countries. Five years ago, Spain represented 90% of our global turnover, while now this percentage only reaches 17%. This is mainly due to the growth of padel in other countries. And we can still see that some nations have not yet seen this sport take off in their countries, such as Germany, the United Kingdom or the United States.”

The booming Baltic countries: watch out for overheating

After discussing France and Spain, we wanted to know which other part of the globe surprised Nicolas Fauré in recent years.

“Frankly it's the rest of Europe. South America is historic no matter what people say. In the United States, it hasn't really started yet. Asia has always suffered from a lack of structures, even tennis has not really taken off in China. Today we focus mainly on the rest of the European continent. I am thinking in particular of the Baltic countries”.

floating padel courts sweden
A floating padel court in Stockholm

For two years now, padel has become more and more established in Sweden, surprising all market players. Indeed, the kingdom has put in place enormous resources to make this sport the future of tomorrow. Facilities, competition organizations or even “clinics” with famous coaches, Sweden is experiencing unprecedented growth. And neighbors Norway and Finland are not far behind!

We wanted to have Nicolas Fauré's opinion on the matter.

“Surprise … We will calm the enthusiasm. We are a little suspicious because when there is exponential growth of more than 200 – 300% over two or three years, we are suspicious of the sport's ability to mature. Let it not be a fad. Today it is growing faster than in some countries in the world, now we are going to look at it at 3, 5, 8 years before making arrangements”.

You can watch the interview in its entirety in the video below.

Sebastien Carrasco

Future naturopath and padel enthusiast, Seb is the health/food man of Padel Magazine. He juggles between pala, quinoa and essential oils. For almost two years now he has been dealing with the news of the little yellow ball with the same passion.

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