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French Market Insight, Autumn 2020
Just like her European neighbours, France has felt the full force of the Coronavirus crisis, but in the end, the French economy might not actually drop that much this year. According to forecasts from La Banque de France, by the start of 2022 the country will be back up to the same level of productivity as at the end of 2019. Finally, a positive note in this rather bleak back-to-school period.
At the same time, France has also reassessed the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on employment for the better. Although unemployment will rise considerably this year, with around 800,000 job losses and an unemployment rate that may reach 11.1% in 2021, more than 700,000 jobs will be restored in 2021 and 2022. Despite the sharp drop in productivity, job losses and bankruptcies have been pretty well contained in France up till now, thanks to the aid packages. Also, some sectors (whose productivity has returned to fairly normal levels) have started to take people on again, restoring the jobs – particularly on a part-time or limited duration basis – that were lost during lockdown.
When it comes to the progression of the epidemic in France, at the time of writing these lines, the spread of the virus seems to be accelerating with a significant rise in infections and hospitalisations. Because of these trends, the government has tightened restrictions and the Prime Minister is even talking openly about another potential lockdown if the situation continues to deteriorate. These measures directly affect our own domain and following the latest announcements from the Ministry of Health, the Federation of Nautical Industries was unfortunately forced to cancel the 2020 edition of the Salon Nautique in Paris. The “Nautic”, one of the biggest tradeshows in France, attracts over 200,000 visitors and over 800 exhibitors at the start of each December.
So, as you can see the situation in France is pretty unstable, but really, how is it for the industry and more specifically for our retailers? All shops in France are subject to social distancing rules to limit the spread of the virus. Since opening back up on May 11, with no exceptions, all shops have had set rules to follow, which were quickly accepted and adhered to by customers: mandatory face coverings, hydroalcoholic gels, and floor markings. Most shops have also added Plexiglas screens at cash desks, are disinfecting fitting rooms/tried-on garments and are favouring contactless payments, etc… All these measures were put in place as soon as possible to encourage customers to come back to shops and start spending again post-haste.
For shops on the coast, overall, it seems to have worked out quite well. From Ponant Surf Shop, the historic shop founded by Perros Guirec in 1973 in Brittany, Thierry Deniel tells us: “We’ve really felt an increase in visitation numbers this summer compared to previous years”. More specifically: “Increased sales in the technical section is certainly down to the desire to get back to nature sports after a period of restrictions.” It’s the same story a bit further south at ATS Surf Shop in Plouharnel where Xavier Auffray says that: “Like everyone, we suffered a lot in lockdown with the shop, the shaping workshop closed and only a trickle of sales from our website. However, the post-lockdown frenzy has allowed us to make up for the loss of turnover and we should finish the year on the same level as last year despite being closed for two months.” For him: “The sharp increase in summer visitation numbers is mostly down to the borders closing. French people targeted the French coast for their holidays.” From even further south on the Ile d’Oléron, the reports are the same, as Pierre Groot from Cocoa Gliss in Saint Pierre d’Oléron suggests: “We made up for the closed period and by August 31 we’d even surpassed our turnover for 2019”. He adds: “There’s been a lot more people this summer with a higher average basket price, but the overall margin hasn’t increased because we’ve sold a lot more technical products than in previous years”.
From the big towns, the reports are more mixed. At Sport Adventure in Bordeaux, an outdoor sports specialist with around thirty employees, manager of the watersports section Franck David says that: “We’ve had to change up our opening hours to just being open from 1pm-6pm Monday-Saturday instead of 10am-7pm; as a result, we’ve made some partial redundancies within our teams”. Adding: “In terms of turnover, we are obviously down in the shop, but our website has seen a considerable rise in sales with a really good first fortnight of September.” Once again the technical section saw the majority of sales: “We have sold a lot more surfboards than last year. The bodyboard and skimboard sections have also gone really well and SUPs have remained on the same level.”
When it comes to products and more precisely surfboards, above all, it was the mid-lengths that saw the best success this year and the most mentioned brands were Torq, Venon and Perfect Stuff. The softboard phenomenon seems to have strengthened with more and more choice in the shops and the most sought-after brands appear to be Softech, Catch Surf and Iindio.
It’s a very similar story from the street shops: at Vega Skateshop, the emblematic shop in Paris’ 10th arrondissement, François Wuest explains: “We suffered a huge loss in turnover due to the forced closures of lockdown but as soon as we re-opened skateboarding came back really strong and many people were looking for an alternative means of getting around”. He adds: “In the end, we’re coming out pretty well despite the frequent shortages in equipment from suppliers”. Even though there were a lot less tourist visitations in the big towns this year, François tells us that: “The summer has been really good with a boom in skateboarding, we sold mostly hardgoods and quite a lot of shoes. However, there was a marked drop in the clothing section”. He concludes: “At the moment, the back-to-school period seems quiet, but the skateboard craze is well and truly here. There are many new participants as well as older skaters picking it back up after a long gap and, just like we’ve seen in recent years, the number of women skateboarding is constantly on the rise”. As for brands, the most desirable for boards seem to be Real, Baker and Polar while on the shoe side of things, strong dominance comes from Nike SB and Converse.
Overall, the boardsports market and, more precisely, technical equipment seems to have held its own through this economic and health crisis. Nonetheless, France is still on alert and the situation is evolving constantly, closely watched over by a government that is continually updating its protective measures. Here’s to hoping that the winter season will be similar in resorts to how it went down on the French coast this summer…
