Le Podium - Passion, confiance, persistance le trio gagnant avec Eric BABOLAT Babolat

So we're talking about tennis with Babolat, and racket sports, badminton, and padel. Indeed, Babolat is a family business and historical, born in 1875 with the invention of tennis racket stringing by my great-great-grandfather at the birth of this sport. And well, I don't know the recipe, I don't know if there is one, but it's like athletes: look at the point after and always be in search of innovations that will interest the lovers of our sports. And we have a formidable lever, which is the visibility in competition of the best players in the world, and that since tennis exists. We talk about the Musketeers of French tennis, Monsieur Lacoste and his acolytes, or Suzanne Lenglen in the 1920s-1930s, and we talk about for example Rafael Nadal or Carlos Alcaraz today who carry high the colors of our innovations and make lovers in clubs want to use the same products as them.

We are sometimes referred to as sponsors, but we are not exactly sponsors. Of course, there are financial relationships, but we are first and foremost full teams. In the sports we are in, the equipment we offer rackets, stringing, shoes are part of the players' performance, whether in clubs or at the high level. So the relationship of trust athletes have with our brand and our technicians, our engineers, is about the extension of their body, a bit like a violinist with their instrument; it's the extension of their body. So it's an important relationship of trust. For professional athletes, it's something they use every day, all day, so there is an intimate relationship with the product and the brand, and a trust that is born. A player named Carlos Alcaraz, who is Spanish, a little over 20 years old, the youngest number one in the history of tennis, has played with Babolat since he was 9, a bit like his illustrious fellow Spaniard Rafael Nadal, who won 14 times Roland Garros, 22 Grand Slams, and whose parallel story began when he started playing tennis seriously with Babolat at age 9 and didn't want to change because it worked well and he had trust and has trust in our products.

Well, like with the innovations we bring to players in clubs, it's observation. I often say that a relationship between a brand and its users is a bit like a relationship between two people who love each other, and the best proof of love you can give someone you love is to anticipate their desires and needs. So as a brand, we observe the game, we observe the players whether they are children just starting or high-level athletes, to of course meet their needs when they want more power or more topspin like Nadal, find ways to do it. Or sometimes say to ourselves, he plays like that, and Rafael Nadal plays with a Babolat racket called the Aero, which has a completely revolutionary aerodynamics compared to what was done before. Because before Rafael Nadal, people played tennis like this, and he plays like that, so the aerodynamics of a product entering the air like this or like that is not the same. So we inverted the aerodynamics to have a racket that penetrates the air more. And when Nadal played with a traditional racket, we came to offer him this more aerodynamic racket that met his need, he liked it, and we developed from there. So it's observation, we rely a lot on empiricism really: we try, we propose, and then it works or it doesn't, we adjust, and that's how it happens. But because we are passionate and very dedicated to what we do, we generally land more often right than wrong.

Yes, of course, especially in our field. We are in an equipment sport, a performance sport. When you play tennis or padel or badminton, you have to beat those in front of you; it's also a combat sport. So there is an expectation, physical or sometimes a bit aspirational that my equipment will help me be stronger, go faster. So players, once again, club players as well as athletes, expect equipment that brings them that extra power and control. And that's how it works. So the proposition of these innovations that will gain you 10 km/h, that will gain you 1 meter in running faster, that's what we do every day. And that gives us, first of all, one more reason for lovers to practice their sport: they are excited to try new products and say to themselves, I'm going to be better, I'm going to be stronger, I'm going to have more fun as well. It's also sometimes about enjoying oneself and learning faster, not necessarily being world champion. That is a driver that seems important to us in an equipment sport like ours.

Yes, of course. We have a 150-year history. Well, that's it, we'll be 150 years old next year: 1875-2025. And it's roots and wings. We want to have at least 150 years ahead of us. We have many projects. Being a family-owned, heritage company means naturally being long-term oriented. So at Babolat, we master quite well the arm of tennis athletes. We also do it for padel and for badminton increasingly. The feet, footwork in our sports, is important, and we are dedicated pure players in these fields. And we have a lot of development potential because our sports are growing. Many people have discovered or rediscovered the interest in sport with COVID, which made many understand that for good health, sport was a good solution, and that there are healthier sports than others, games like tennis that are with people and bring a social dimension that feels good. Sport is good for the body, good for the mind too. So more and more people are practicing sports, and we are lucky at Babolat to also be in sports besides tennis that are easier to learn, like badminton which is in schools, or padel which anyone can start tomorrow and enjoy and become addicted. So these are sports more technically accessible than tennis, which requires some learning.

Yes, it's important. Especially, well, I am a business leader, so being an entrepreneur, having a company, it's a team sport. Working in a company, if you are several, it's to be stronger than alone. And at Babolat, speaking of tennis, tennis is rather an individual sport. However, badminton and padel are sports usually played in pairs, team sports. In badminton you meet other teams. So it's important in this social dimension too, because if we were only in a combat sport where the other is there to beat, it's less fun. When you are together as a team, it reinforces desire, cohesion, and you can be stronger because you rely on the different strengths of each other, which is complicated when alone since you only have your own strengths and weaknesses.