BIG FISH, LITTLE FISH
How an Australian surfboard retailer wound up in one of the world’s largest sporting outlets
A Frenchman walks into a surf shop.
It might sound like the setup to a fairly lame joke, but in reality it’s the beginning of a remarkable business and personal journey for the afore-mentioned Frenchman and a local surfboard business.
The surf shop was the Surfboard Warehouse in Byron Bay and the Frenchman was Olivier Robinet, a keen kite surfer and standup paddle boarder who also happens to be Australian CEO for Decathlon, the world’s largest sporting goods retailer, with 1500 stores and more than 80,000 staff in 57 countries.
“The first time I went in this shop I was on vacation, I wasn’t thinking about business, it was more personal,” says Olivier, from his home in Maroubra on Sydney’s Southside. “It was quite similar to us in the spirit, it was just a vibration, a nice range of boards for a very good price.”
Olivier asked to speak to a manager and left his card, envisaging some sort of collaboration might be possible, with Decathlon’s expansion into Australia offering a potential windfall for a local surfboard retailer, but he didn’t hear back from anyone.
A year later, he was kite surfing in Noosa, and walked into another Surfboard Warehouse store and got the same feeling. “I asked them for the name of someone to speak to and I called them but no one responded,” he says. The Surfboard Warehouse, it seems, was playing hard to get.
Finally, Olivier went into a Surfboard Warehouse store in Sydney, got the name and number of director Sean Kennedy and gave him a call. Despite their different cultural backgrounds, and the vastly different size and scope of their businesses, an immediate bond was formed.
“It was quite strange for me. Two years after that first contact, it was quite amazing, in a few minutes on the phone we realise we have the same purpose, dedicated to make sports accessible to the many … When I talk to Sean I understand he was of the same mind set.”
Olivier had arrived in Australia four years ago not only to introduce Decathlon to the Australian market, but also to understand the Australian way of life. “I want to adapt. When I go somewhere, it was to be Australian and to live as an Australian. They are the most sporting people in the world,” he says.
As part of that mission, he’d graduated from windsurfing to kite surfing to standup paddleboarding to surfing. Along the way, he realised that Decathlon’s own surfing brand, Olaian couldn’t cater to the discerning tastes of Australian surfers and they would need a local surfboard partner. “I understand that we would need to have a range and we would never adapt to the surf market with our boards,” he says. “We have that range of good products but for the boards we don’t have the right range.”
Within two months of that first conversation, the giant French sports retailer and the homegrown surf shop had struck a deal to put the first Surfboard Warehouse outlet inside a Decathlon store, without so much as a contract signed. The Surfboard Warehouse could provide their broad product range, surfing expertise and local knowledge and Decathlon would bring their vast retail know-how and systems to the table.
“This partnership with The Surfboard Warehouse, with all their partners, their shapers, their champions, as a big sports retail company of sports fanatics, super organised in the way we make business … it just makes sense,” says Olivier. “Our idea is to find the right partner with the same values, to feel good with that partner, to feel we can partner for 20 or 30 years. You share the same values, the same purpose. They have the same management style, they take care of people, they take care of our playing field, nature.”
There was a natural alignment to the two companies’ philosophies - Decathlon to make sport accessible to the many, and The Surfboard Warehouse to democratise water sports. At the heart of that philosophy are common values of inclusivity and affordability. “It’s a bit like Decathlon, they integrate a full process, design, full production, and have your own retail, you don’t need to have two or three margins. Invest less in marketing, you can make it super cheap. You don’t sell a brand, you sell a product. If you invest 20% in marketing you ask the customer to pay it. Sean says he took inspiration from Decathlon.”
“Life is so expensive for people, even if they love sports at the end of the fortnight they don’t have any more money for what they need for their passion,” says Olivier. He sees this first hand in his home beach of Maroubra, where a vast gulf exists between wealthy residents and those doing it tough.
Recognising this, he also launched the Surf and Smile Foundation, to collect snapped and damaged boards, repair them and make them available to young surfers who couldn’t otherwise afford them. “The small foundation is a personal project I launched last year,” says Olivier. “In Maroubra/Malabar there are a lot of surfers, a lot of wealthy people but also a lot of social housing and family/kids that can’t afford surfboards. A lot of people throw away their damaged board, so my thinking is that recycling when possible is also good for our playing field, the ocean. I am a shaper, one of my passions is to shape and build my own kitesurf board. I love to work with foam, epoxy, test different shapes, design and constructions.” He partnered with a local youth group, Kool Kids Malabar, to distribute the boards to those who need them most.
This was also part of his mission to understand and embrace the local surf culture. “I just discovered how Aussies live. I’d see guys getting changed out of their wetsuits in the car park and into a suit and tie. They surf and go to the CBD for work. I couldn’t believe it, because for me surf was a passion for guys who were living in Hawaii, not in a city like Sydney,” he says.
Decathlon caters to some 70 different sports and Olivier says this is at the core of their retail experience. “People can touch, they can play. I think it’s quite good. As a family, people like to go to a surf shop and can go to the fishing department, the kayak department. It’s what people really love in Decathlon, it’s every sport. The surfing department smells of wax, the cycling department smells of grease.”
Some have been wary of the sporting retail giant, sometimes referred to as the Ikea of sport, moving into the Australian market. “Three years ago when we opened we were seen as a big multi-national to fight with. We are not here to fight, we are here to bring something new for people,” says Olivier. “A reporter asked me, do you want to fight against Rebel Sport? Our main competition is this mobile phone, if you son is on it you might prefer him to go surfing. I see Netflix as a competitor, Rebel Sport is a colleague. Sport is good for your body, it’s good for your mind. We are lucky, we have a nice purpose.”
The first Surfboard Warehouse outlet will open in a Decathlon store in Sydney this month, with others to follow. A “soft launch” has helped reassure everyone that the concept works. “All the team work together. It’s very nice. I’m very happy with the launch. I think this partnership will be very good,” he says.
“I’m sure we’ll learn a lot from each other. What we’ve achieved together is quite incredible. We spoke to Sean in July and we already have an active partnership. Boards are already online, our first shop is already open, with a second one in Melbourne, in Moorabin. What we achieved is a really nice partnership. Even though we didn’t have any contracts we already work together, everything was already done. I let our people work this fast because we felt good. When you have this feeling it can only be nice. We need to be humble, we don’t have the right surfing range, let’s find the best Australian partner. I hope it will be very good for them. For us it just makes our customers more happy.”
The first Surfboard Warehouse outlet will open in the Decathlon store in Tempe in Sydney on October 16.
