gender equality in the policy of Joma Sport resolved by the biology. Fructuoso López is the founder and president; Marina Arellano, his wife, is the vice-president; and the sons, José Manuel, Alberto, Fruitful, Alice and Navy, are in charge of the accounts, the textile, clothing and footwear, sales and marketing. From its gigantic factory Portillo (Toledo), the family runs a multinational company dedicated to the clothing and sports shoes, present in 120 countries.
More familiar you can’t be: only the tax department is outsourced. The design, R & D, test systems for their products, domestic sales and exports…, everything is in the hands of Lopez.
Until the name of Joma comes out of the family, formed by the first syllables of his first son, José Manuel. A business story that is born in 1965 from the hand of Fructuoso Lopez (Portillo, 1942) —Fortu to the people close to him— that since he was little, I was obsessed with being an entrepreneur, to do things for itself: “I didn’t care much for the salary”. His people had as unique options to work in the field as his father or to become a cobbler, and he opted for the latter. He learned the craft, did courses of the author, and the return of the mili was established only: “I borrowed 15 pairs of lasts and a Singer machine, valued at 3.000 pesetas (18 euros), that is deducted from my job making football boots for a customer in Madrid”, explained Fructuoso.
Now has 400 employees and six branches in the world (Mexico, united States, Brazil, Italy, China, and Panama) with its own sales. An activity that is summarized in the 250 million turnover by 2019, with a growth of 15%. 70% of these revenues come from exports, and of this percentage, 40% from Italy, France, the United Kingdom and countries of the East, while South america accounts for 15%. And even if the source were the football boots, now the sole sports bill more than the footwear.
Fructuoso López recognizes that to sell the outside was very complicated. “40 years ago, when I had few resources, I started to invest in the brand, by registering it in many markets. But no one helped you, it was learning to blow of success and failure. Now with new technologies it is very easy to get everywhere, but then you had to find distributors who will trust in you. In this new scenario many dealers have disappeared and we have finished soaking,” she explains. In its facilities of Portillo, you will hear several languages. Joma has a huge exposure of your products there and a trade explains in Polish to two customers the advantages of its textiles and sports footwear, while at the side you hear another conversation in French. “We have business at our headquarters, which explain our products in 13 languages,” he says.
the factory To toledo Joma arrive and are redistributed all the products, be to Spain and to Asia. They are currently expanding the plant, which include a few stores giant and a rating system of orders with a capacity of up to 30,000 units per hour. Fruitful bet decidedly by the e-commerce and new technologies.
The dilemma of manufacture
But in Joma, as is the case with the multinational companies with which we compete —Nike or Adidas, among others, does not manufacture even a single t-shirt, or a shoe, or a ball. Fructuoso Lopez realized that or took that path outsource the manufacturing, or it would end up shutting down. He first went to Korea, and then move on to China and Indonesia. And is that, according to explains, there are times that the tariffs in force the place of manufacture. For example, Mexico has rates of 400% to China, while Indonesia are zero. “We sent the design, textile…, to our China office, they send us the model and, if we agree, they start to develop the collection,” said the president of Joma.
One of the keys to success in these 54 years has been its commitment for the sports sponsorships. For this year highlights the nine olympic committees, among them the Spanish. Estimate that Tokyo 2020 more than 20% of the athletes will be Joma. Already in the past Games of Rio de Janeiro, the Spanish brand has sponsored nine olympic committees, from Spain to Mexico or Portugal, and 18 federations or sports disciplines. The first football boots of the color of the footballer Alfonso Pérez; the sponsorship of Butragueño, Beguiristain, Martin Vazquez are milestones of the bet by the marketing.
This vision of its founder has allowed him to compete with popular brands, strong as Nike or Adidas. “You must not confront your competition. When I see it coming, you change lanes because every company has to know where to find always. We have to make a good product, well designed, of high quality, be serious and give a good service and invest in the product so that others invest in advertising. We’ve been nine years in a row being the number one in Spain in the sale of sports equipment,” explains Lopez.
in Addition, he says that there are many attempts to buy the company. We have been approached by equity firms to enter with a 10% and in five years raise the percentage to 40%. “We are family, and if we sell the company we would be rolling back to the family,” ditch the president.
Debt and dividend
The theme of the debt in Joma is easily solved: you do not have. Logically, use the typical credit lines to go running in the day-to-day. “I have never borrowed money from banks or friends. All the growth has been with their own money and continues to remain so”, explained Fructuoso Lopez. Joma also distributes dividends among its family shareholders. The goal is always to enlarge the business with the profits obtained. “My children have their salary, their houses, and are poured into the company,” says the president. However, the family account with his investments, as it could not be of another form, are shared. The founder of Joma not have attracted him to never a financial investment and has always opted for the goods. So, the family has two hotels in Mallorca, is the owner of 40% of the sports stores Tenths and has invested in commercial premises, farms and land.
