Babolat

Babolat is a French racket sports company based in Lyon. It calls itself the oldest racquet sports company in the world: Pierre Babolat began making gut strings in 1875 and later produced the first natural gut tennis string. The VS string followed in 1925 and the first synthetic string in 1955. Éric Babolat has led the company since 1998 and is its owner and president.

Features

• Tennis rackets, with the first frames launched in 1994 (among them the Pure Drive) and the Aero frame in 2003.
• Badminton rackets since 1995 and padel rackets since 2001, plus pickleball paddles.
• Strings, balls, shoes, bags, overgrips and apparel for tennis, padel, badminton and pickleball.
• According to the company, 445 employees, of whom 279 work in France at three production sites (Lyon/Corbas, Besançon and Brittany), nine subsidiaries and sales in 150 countries.

Range and limits

Babolat reports revenue of €197.3 million for 2023, about 75 % of it from tennis. Tennis players are therefore the core audience.