Australia’s Love for Tennis an Ace of a Business Opportunity
Businesses serving Australia’s Tennis Industry continue to benefit from the popularity of the sport…
The 2017 Australian Open final attracted a 4.5 million viewing audience, it confirmed what we all suspected, Australians just love tennis and sports are an integral part of our way of life. Running a business, servicing Australia’s growing recreational sports sector can be quite lucrative. An increasing trend towards entrepreneurship and franchising in Australia has also seen some unique opportunities emerge.
Alan Dean, the Director of Sportzing, saw those trends coming to a head back in the late 2000’s. He bought Sportzing Court Care in 2015, Australia’s largest tennis court maintenance company with franchise territories all around the country.
According to Alan, “There are over a million people in Australia now who list Tennis as a sport they are active in; so Sportzing is positioned in a growing industry to be investing in”. And despite the relatively pensive local economy, there is no slowdown in Australians continuing to build tennis courts. According to Tennis Australia’s 2015-2016 Annual report, an additional 319 new or reconditioned have been constructed in the past 12 months with a total of 2,154 courts delivered as part of the National Court rebate scheme since its inception in 2007.
At Eden Exchange we come across a lot of people looking to change their life direction by buying a business for themselves. When we recently met Alan, we found an opportunity with a difference, a tennis court maintenance franchise that has tapped in to the growing trend for Australians to work for themselves as well as the ongoing demand generated from the sports sector.
Sportzing has also clocked a few noticeable milestones. Its been running for 25 years and leads the industry in servicing, cleaning, maintaining and installing tennis courts. Its carried out over 25,000 services by utilising its purpose built technology and maintenance methods which were approved by Tennis Australia back in the 90’s.
According to Alan, “This is not just a niche industry. There is proven longevity in the investment. We have franchisees stay in the business for long periods of time, several have been operating for over 12 years.” He also believes the business is almost impossible to replicate, as “The machine we use are manufactured in Australia by Sportzing. This makes our business highly differentiated”.
When you look for a business, the golden rules are that you want a well-defined market with lots of potential for growth. Sportzing ticks these boxes. It has an extensive client database and anticipates having new franchisees set up in WA, SA, and Tasmania, and expanding existing territories in Victoria and NSW.
And the future of the industry looks bright;
- In the past year, more than 570,000 children enjoyed an ANZ Tennis Hot Shots experience.
- 1,043 primary schools had tennis in their curriculum as part of the National School Partnership Program.
- More than 14.3 million unique visitors to ausopen.com throughout the tournament fortnight, and more than 1.2 million Australian Open hashtags were used across all social media platforms.
We have all heard the adage ‘if you love your job then you won’t have to work another day’. Alan and Sandie Dean personify this, treating the franchise like a family business with everyone entering and sharing in the success.
While Alan guarantees that a new franchisee will be fully competent with all of the “on-court” training provided, he is looking for franchisees who are passionate. In a recent interview with BusinessBuyInvest he was quoted as saying, “While we are there to provide all the business training and help, the ball’s in your court. Sportzing is a lifestyle business so the key message is you need to love what you do, and then everything else will fall into place”.
Sportzing is now recruiting new franchisees around Australia.
For further information, contact: Sportzing 1800 818 894 or click here to view their latest franchise opportunities.
For media inquiries or to arrange an interview please contact Eden Exchange on +613 8658 2292 or +612 8880 5535.