The Swedish company has built courts in the Alps and on beaches: "Sir Andy Murray was there"

The Swedish padel company Instantpadel has since launch 2021 grown globally and is now delivering Instantpadel courts to various locations worldwide. In an exclusive interview with Padel Alto, CEO and Co-Founder Christoffer Granfelt discusses the possibilities of their world unique padelcourts and the company's future.

Almost three years ago, Padel Alto wrote about the padel court company Instantpadel for the first time, who could uniquely install a court in only four hours without major groundwork. Since then, Instantpadel has continued to grow.

Today, their courts have been installed in several places such as Luxorious Gleneagles, Soho Club, several places in city central London, On a boat in Kuwait, the Swiss Alps, by the beach in Cannes and shopping centres, to name just a few cool places.

— There are many places in the world where you don't want, cannot or are not allowed to build traditional padel courts for various reasons, and that's where Instantpadel comes in, says Christoffer Granfelt.

He continues:

— What makes the court unique is that the usual glass panel weighing about 250 kilos has been replaced by polycarbonate weighing only about 100 kilos. For easier assembly, the floor is also different. Instead, we use a sportsfloor from the American manufacturer Versacourt. Since its launch in 2021, Instantpadel courts has been played by hundreds of thousands of players where as we have received excellent response.

Instantpadel's CEO Christoffer Granfelt has from the start, communicated the company's vision, namely to make padel available anywhere and everywhere. Instantpadel's unique design solution makes this possible.

— Our target group is mainly recreational players who wants to play padel for fun. We have absolutely no ambition to be compared with a traditional court for the world elite but we are more than happy to offer a good enough court to all the enthusiastic amateurs out there.

He continues:

— But, several of the world elite players have tried Instantpadel, and they are super impressed with the court. One example is Tia Norton, ranked number one in the UK, who says in an interview that she did not feel that there was much difference between a traditional court and an Instantpadel court. What she noticed was that the floor was a little faster, but after about ten minutes of playing, it was not something she thought about anymore.

The company started in Sweden in 2021, where everything went very fast. One of the first customers was one of the Nordic region's largest property companies, who immediately saw the benefits of Instantpadel.

—  They bought several courts that they then built up in various living areas around Sweden, with the advantage that they could offer the residents an opportunity to try out the sport, which in turn led to the property company's motto: to be part of creating a safe, social and active environment.

He continues:

— This project could not have been realised with traditional courts, partly because of building permits but also due to the fact that the groundwork would have been too expensive and extensive.

After the launch in Sweden, the company got in touch with the English padel operator Game4Padel, who was looking for precisely what Instantpadel could offer.

—  As mentioned earlier, it went very quickly, and we sold a lot of  Instantpadel courts in Sweden and then we were contacted by Game4Padel, which today is England's largest padel operator, who had tried to find courts for Westfield in London (Europe's largest shopping centre) for a year and a half. The problem was that no courts were approved. Then Game4Padel founder Peter Gordon, who had tested our courts at Gleneagles in Scotland, was convinced that our courts had a good chance to be approved.

He continues:

—  In just three weeks, we were approved by Westfield. We then launched Instantpadel in UK together with Game4Padel. Sir Andy Murray and several elite players and other celebrities were there. During the three days, there were about 300.000 to 400,000 visitors in the shopping centre. It was a huge success and a global spread, partly because of the unique location and also because there were so many interesting people there that the media wanted to interview.

—  The Westfield event in London became the starting point for our international journey. We are still featured with pictures of our court from articles all over the world that is writing about "The global growth of padel". It makes me very proud," he says.

Since then, Instantpadel has continued to deliver courts to Game4Padel and other companies internationally. Christoffer Granfelt says that today, the company has installed about 150 courts in 17 countries.

—  Game4Padel was delighted with the response of the Westfield project, where they got an excellent response of our court, so they quickly wanted to become exclusive distributors. Now they have been exclusive distributors for a year, where as they have installed multiple courts at the London Tower, Virgin Active, Goslin Park and many other locations in and around London.

He continues:

—  In addition, we have continued our journey. When the so-called padel death (which he would instead want to call the padel over-establishment) came to Sweden, we just shifted our focus and started delivering to England, Holland and Germany. 2024, we will soon begin our journey into the United States, which will be very exciting.

"Enable Padel anywhere & everywhere"

Now, Instantpadel wants to look ahead and continue to deliver courts to new places and look into new markets. Christoffer Granfelt says that their goal is related to their slogan: Enable Padel anywhere & everywhere.

The company will continue to work on a broad basis but with a strategic focus in the countries where padel has started to take off.

— We always want to be accessible and be able to send a court anywhere in the world. We have for instance several courts in Australia, Kuwait and now also in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Soon, also the United States but we do seperate us from the global spread of courts, with on what markets we want to focus on, and of course the timing of this, but this agenda changes constantly, given how fast the sport evolves.

He continues:

—  What we have learnt is that all markets have different maturity levels. Depending on the maturity, we have more or less of a role to play. When you enter an entirely new market, customers almost have to build traditional courts first to understand the advantages and disadvantages of building up a padel court. When they then learn what it means to build a traditional court, some customer groups become more curious about what Instantpadel has to offer.

What would you say is the most significant advantage of your courts?

—  In the beginning, it was cool that we could build a court in only four hours. But that is only fun facts, it doesn't really matter if it takes five or fifteen hours. You can plan this. Our selling point is that you don't need as much permission or groundwork. London is a good example, since they have major problems with permits and the high costs associated with doing major groundworks.

He continues

—  An Instantpadel court is slightly more expensive than a traditional court because of the polycarbonate that is four times more expensive. I have to guide customers daily to remind them of the importance to compare the purchase of courts togehter with the cost of  groundwork inclusive all the various costs around the project. This is mainly an issue in the new markets, given that customers have not yet fully understood the whole picture, which is fully understandable.

In conclusion, Christoffer Granfelt says:

— But we are not on the market to be cheaper. We are the smarter solution for the right target group, given that an Instantpadel court does not need as many permits or does not require major groundwork. 

Some examples of cool Instantpadel installations in the world: