Market Insight: Portugal

The vaccination in Portugal has been a success. The country reached in August 70% of the population vaccinated with two doses against Covid-19. This achievement placed Portugal as the highest vaccination rate country per 100 inhabitants in the EU and the 2nd best in the world. It allowed us to enter a new stage two weeks earlier than expected and the government eased restrictions. Restaurants, cafes and patisseries can now have more people inside and on terraces and work in the usual schedule. Events including weddings, baptisms and cultural shows are now limited to 75% of public instead of 50%. As for commercial spaces, the capacity goes from five to eight people per 100m2 which is important for surf shops of this size. The beginning of August was important for the Portuguese economy which received 2.2 billion euros from the European Union regarding 13% of the Recovery and Resilience Facility. Surf and skate shops are returning to “normal” life despite safety rules with a limited number of customers allowed inside, social distancing of 2m, customers and staff wearing masks and alcohol-gel for hand hygiene. Boardsport lovers are enjoying the summer freely and tourism is stronger. There is a high demand for hardgoods with some retailers out of stock and looking for reorders. Magic Quiver is a surf shop in Ericeira that has been around since 2012 known for a careful selection of surfboards and brands. “Summer sales started a bit slower than last year but were decent and the demand for surfboards is still high”, said the store’s CEO, Mario Wehle. “The maximum number of clients in the store was restricted to 6. It was difficult to manage on busy days but also gave us the chance to really focus on the clients in the store.” Magic Quiver noticed a higher demand in surfboards and a price increase due to reasons that impact almost all shops across Europe. “On softgoods we’re doing similar as the years before. We definitely feel an increased demand in surfboards and the long production times make it difficult to build good stock for the shop rack. Most new boards that

PORTUGAL come in are booked or reserved before they hit the rack. Prices on surfboards are definitely going FRANCE up. That has to do with increased raw material UK cost but even more with extremely high shipping GERMANY costs.” The store is hoping for a good Fall season ITALY SWISS AUSTRIA because travel should increase due to higher vaccination. They’re expecting to see plenty of people in Ericeira in the next few months. Rocha Surf Shop is located in the south of Portugal in Praia da Rocha, Portimão, Algarve. They established the store in 2016 and focused their business on surf, bodyboard, skateboard and SUP supply special care in hardgoods mixed with apparel. Stand Up Paddle is a key part of their business with the sale of rigid, customized and inflatable boards especially. They make tours along the beautiful Portimão coast to make the best of four months of flat spells. The year 2021 has seen a higher demand of this service from tourists and Portuguese clientele. Their client profile is a mix of local community along with domestic and foreign tourists. Despite the local support, the Algarve is a tourism dependent highly sensitive area. Covid flight restrictions had a big impact in the store’s regular business. “This year has been a roller coaster”, said the owner, Carlos Barão. “We’ve been having sales and breakage peaks due to the opening/closing of circulation between cities and tourism safe corridors. Constant new restrictive measures didn’t help.” As with many other stores they’re facing stock problems. “Now we’re starting to feel the pandemic effects. The fact that raw materials extraction has stopped, factory production has slowed down along with higher demand has caused a shortage of supply. Since the beginning of August we’ve had no stock of apparel and wetsuits. This lack of stock has a negative effect in the demand and will be followed by price inflation. This is already being noticed in some products and will have more impact next year.” With the Fall 21 season around the corner, let’s hope “normal” life can be a reality for everyone.