Britain’s love affair with tennis dates back over a century. However, after a golden period in the 1930s, characterised by Fred Perry’s dominance and success in the 1960s through Ann Haydon-Jones, British tennis fans have had to endure a long wait for success.
In recent years, however, British tennis has enjoyed something of a renaissance on the court. After years of disappointment and near triumphs, fans have had the pleasure of watching success on a number of occasions, whether it was Jamie Murray winning a Wimbledon title in the mixed doubles in 2007, Jonathan Marray’s men’s doubles triumph in 2012 or Andy Murray’s double victory in 2012, when he captured both Olympic gold for Great Britain and the US Open title.
Eclipsed
This, however, was eclipsed the following year as he added an historic Wimbledon title to his collection, which also brought an end to the 77-year wait for a British men’s Wimbledon champion.
Even the Great Britain Davis Cup team has enjoyed success, being promoted to the World Group for the 2014 competition, meaning they are now dining at the top table of the premier international team event in men’s tennis.
How has success at the top of the sport filtered down to participation levels at the grass roots and are we seeing the tennis market’s overall value in footwear and apparel sales boosted by this success?
In terms of participation levels, according to the Sport England Active People Survey – which monitors once-a-week participation over 30 minutes by people aged above 16 – tennis participation overall has actually decreased over the last five years. This decline has prompted Sport England to rethink how it funds tennis in England and resulted in the announcement last January that funding would be altered.
While Sport England recognised the Lawn Tennis Association had made progress in the last 12 months and was fully committed to improving participation levels in the sport, it noted the declining levels of participation meant there was a need to deliver on a larger scale.
With this in mind, Sport England announced it would be withdrawing funds originally committed to boosting 16-25-year-old participation levels, using them instead for a pilot scheme with local authorities aimed at increasing park court usage.
Healthy
Sport England and the LTA’s commitment to increasing tennis participation in Great Britain will be good news to manufacturers and retailers alike.
According to the NPD Consumer Panel, the outlook for the tennis category is healthy and overall sales of tennis footwear and apparel have grown considerably. For the 12 months ending March 2014, the value of the market stands at over £90 million, which is an increase of 19 per cent versus the same period in 2013.
If we look at the market in six-monthly time periods, we see sales are strongest in the six-month period from April to September. However, sales growth in the last year has predominantly happened during the latest six-month period ending March 2014.
In the latest 12 months to March 2014, around 60 per cent of sales were attributed to tennis apparel, with the remaining 40 per cent being for footwear. Recent British successes have certainly helped boost the value of the market in the last two years.
Factors
How the tennis category performs going into summer 2014 will rest, in all likelihood, on two major factors – the weather and success at Wimbledon. Despite Andy Murray not being able to repeat his achievement of 2013, this year’s Wimbledon men’s championship proved to be a classic, as the old master Roger Federer was narrowly defeated in one of the all-time great finals by Novak Djokovic.
In the women’s game we saw the emergence of a new crop of female players, typified by Eugenie Bouchard’s impressive run to the final.
The interest generated by this year’s tournament paired with the warm weather Britain has been experiencing this summer means retailers and manufacturers alike will have reason to be cautiously optimistic in 2014.
The NPD Group monitors the sales of sports footwear and apparel in many countries around the world. For more information call the NPD Group sports team on 01932 355580 or visit http://www.npd.com
