I've the intention of operating a small shop selling rackets and doing stringing in Maastricht. Can anyone advise on the popularity of the sports there? I'll be making a trip there in October and will stay till Jan to see what options I have over there before coming back to Singapore. How feasible is it to even operate a badminton gym there? Anyone with any info please advise. Thanks
Hi Kaffie, Nice to hear you have the intention to operate a small shop in The Netherlands ! First, i do not live in the neighborhoud of Maastricht, but as a badminton fanatic living in the Netherlands i will try to give an impression : In general, badminton isn't a very popular sport in the Netherlands. There are badminton-only stores, however most of them operate from home, some do have a internet web-site. If you want to see the badminton equipment, you have to make an appointment to visit the 'shop' owner's home. Unfortunately i haven't seen a badminton-only shop with a showroom in the Netherlands ever. Furthermore, badminton-rackets are sold by regular sport shops and malls. Most sport shops do string badminton rackets, but the machines are often prepared for tennis stringing, badminton stringing jobs by those shops are often poor. At large clubs, there are always one or two who do home-stringing, but i think there is a market for good stringing. In Maastricht, there are at least 3 clubs (i found their excistence through the internet) I would like it very much if there will be a badminton-only shop with showroom in the Netherlands, but to be honest, i do have doubts if there are enough potential customers. For the badminton gym ... almost same story. Most private gyms operate in combination with other sports, like squash and tennis and fitness. But most common format for badminton is a government gym with some renting enthousiastics who run a club without the aim to make profit. I hope i didn't discourage you too much with this information...
Thanks for your info, yong. I'm not looking at a high profit actually. I'll be happy if I can generate 500 Euro a mth in profit. Looks like I might even have to operate from home for a start and look at how it the business grow before deciding on it. How are the prices of rackets compare to that of asia .i.e Singapore and strings?
Hi Marcel, Belgro.. among others, yes.. Cool, a showroom ! it's been some time since i was there, so guess it's getting time to see the cool stuff !
BC Rally : http://www.geocities.com/bcrally/ BC De Shöttel : http://www.home.zonnet.nl/sjottel/ BC Daalhof : no internetsite Dutch badminton fed., Limburg district : http://www.badminton.nl/Limburg/index.htm
Check badminton.pagina.nl, there's a list of clubs in Maastricht. I'm also stringing rackets, in Eindhoven region... (no shop) what kind of rackets do you sell?
