Tradeinn is confirmed year after year as one of the main success stories of the Catalan entrepreneurial ecosystem. The company, which was born as the heir to a small diving shop in L'Estartit (Girona), has become one of the leading online sports product sales groups in the world, with 16 verticals (specialized stores by sport type) that in 2021 reached a turnover of 378 million euros.
This is 90 million euros more than in 2020, a year in which 288 million were earned, after a 55% growth as a result of the pandemic and the rise of e-commerce that it has entailed. The increase registered in 2021 is 31%, so if this trend continues, the company will far exceed 400 million this year.
"We exceed our most optimistic forecasts every year," says Tradeinn leader, David Martín, satisfied, highlighting that the growth achieved in the last year is especially relevant because it has been achieved despite the global supply problems that have affected companies in recent months.
Another key to Tradeinn's success is that the company has been able to respond to the increase in online sales with the launch of a new logistics center that has allowed the storage area to be expanded from 15,000 square meters to 35,000 square meters, with a stock valued at 60 million euros. The expansion of the logistics platform in Celrà (Girona) has involved an investment of ten million, to which another five million have been added for other operational improvements and a new order automation system. Over the last year, the online store has managed an average of 25,000 orders daily.
In the last year, the online store has invested 15 million euros in expanding its logistics capacity and has managed an average of 25,000 daily ordersThe commitment to internally manage all logistics is strategic for Tradeinn and allows it to obtain a net margin of around 10% on its sales. One of the main bets of thise-commerceis to have a very wide assortment, with more than 1.3 million items for sale manufactured by thousands of brands from all over the world. Its sale is also global, since80% of its clients are from outside Spain.
"We hope that the supply crisis being experienced worldwide will be resolved in the first months of 2022, although it is possible that more product categories will be affected," explained the CEO in relation to the main uncertainty they currently face. If these supply difficulties continue, the growth rate recorded in the last two fiscal years could be slowed down.
Tradeinn has its origin in Scubastore, a company that in 1997 was a pioneer in the online sale of products for scuba diving. It was founded by the Dutchman Roland den Hartog, who ran a store and a diving school in L'Estartit and who allied to launch the virtual store with IntercomGi, the Girona-based IT services company of Dídac Lee.
Scubastore, however, did not fully take off until the arrival, in 2008, of David Martín (Girona, 1978), a computer scientist who had worked at IntercomGi and who was also responsible for launching the online channel of Eurekakids. His first decision was to rebrand and refound the website, which was renamed Tradeinn to cover all types of sports. When he arrived, the company billed 1.5 million and today it is close to 400 million, a growth that has been financed almost entirely with the company's own generated resources, which has been profitable from day one. "The merit is not selling, but how you sell," says Martín in the book Barcelona Startup, written by journalist Mar Galtés, who assures that the executive fulfills "the very difficult premise of combining in one person an IT expert, a marketing expert, and a good businessman."
Under Martín's management, today the main shareholder, Tradeinn has gone from billing 1.5 million to nearly 400 millionThis results-oriented approach has allowed Tradeinn to grow without undertaking the usual financing rounds carried out by all startups. After the departure of the founder, Roland den Hartog, in 2008 the company remained in the hands of the investment group VentureCap ---which had entered the capital a few years earlier--- and Dídac Lee. Upon joining, Martín received a package of shares that he increased until he became the main shareholder by repurchasing the shares held byVenturCapwith the dividends obtained each year. In 2015, this fund led by Victoriano Peralta decided to sell the remaining 30% to the Barcelona-based investment groupSuma Capital,that remains in the company's shareholding.