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Portuguese Market: Disposable Income Squeeze Slows Sales

Despite the issues in Europe caused by the war in Ukraine, there’s good news for Portugal’s economy with the European Commission announcing in the Growth Forecast for 2022 a growth of 5.8%, the highest in the European Union. This number is due to the economy good start in the first months of the year with a GDP of 2.6%, largely because of tourism.
By Nuno Principe

The unemployment rate is expected to drop from 6.6% in 2021 to 5.7% in 2022. Despite this preview due to the international reality prices continue to rise sharply with an inflation of 7.2% in April (the highest since 1993) compared to March (5.3%). Still the European Commission forecasts 4.4% inflation for 2022, also the lowest in the EU.

Regarding the pandemic, and despite 95% of the population being vaccinated, Portugal is feeling the effect of Covid-19 sixth wave with increasingly worrying numbers rising every day. The government eliminated the mandatory use of masks inside places on April 22th but only a month later the exponential growth of infections led health specialists to call for the return of the measure. Portugal is the European Union country with the highest new cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection per million inhabitants and the second in the world in this indicator, according to the Our World in Data.

The surfing market faces some problems in restocking several surfboard models and delivery delays of materials to factories. In terms of skateboarding, demand has slowed down compared to the boom seen in the last two years. Concerns about the war along with fuel and essential goods rising prices decreased purchasing power and a contraction in the extra product demand. The priority is now saving money for what’s coming next (whatever that is…). Those who spend money prefer to travel, something they couldn’t do so easily in the last two years.

Wavegliders is a Portuguese brand that has been manufacturing surfboards and longboards for 13 years but the store in Ericeira only opened its doors four years ago. It assumes itself as the ‘home of classic surfing culture’ that draws inspiration from the past to develop the present offering a personalized customer service that highlights the quality of its products. They represent several international shapers at Wavegliders Craftman’s Club with Californian names like Jim Phillips Surfboards, Davenport Surfboards, TrimCraft Surfboards, Ryan Lovelace Surf Craft and Simon Shapes. In terms of apparel, they work with brands such as Rhythm, Brixton, Deus Ex-Machina and Carhartt, among others.

“All these shapers have a common identity that connects us all as we work in a traditional way trying to preserve the legacy of hand shaping”, said Nico, CEO and shaper at Wavegliders. “Our priority is to manufacture a refined, high-end product with special attention to detail and aesthetic care that goes beyond design. These are boards aimed at collector customers or those looking for other perspectives on how to ride waves,” he said.

As for the most popular board models, surfing is experiencing a moment of freedom with out of the box options. “We have demand for classic longboards, various types of midlengths and retro/fish. Surfing culture is now broader and there is an almost infinite way on how to ride waves. These boards are evolving in a way they didn’t in the 80’s/90’s because of the high-performance thruster shortboard dominance. The Pandora box has opened and it’s a great new world”.

Despite the war situation and industry difficulties, Wavegliders managed to get over it. “In our case, as a surfboard shop and manufacturer, we saw growth. The only difficulty we encountered was for brands to produce material delivering on time, but since we work with several suppliers, we are always able to work at 100% and with satisfactory annual growth. Despite the war situation in Europe and the problems we live nowadays, these first five months of the year have been the best since we opened the store. Consumption will slow down in some sectors, but there will always be people with purchasing power”, he assures.

Ericeira, the World Surfing Reserve has grown a lot in the last 10 years enabling the implementation of several sustainable businesses and has contributed to Wavegliders success. “We seek to support the local economy by producing our clothing line using locally produced organic fabrics. We recently expanded the factory to be able to provide a faster response in the lamination part in order to provide the best conditions for the shapers with whom we collaborate.”

Fingers crossed that everybody will have a good summer despite the crazy situation we’re living in Europe. Think positive. Peace.