Australia’s great leap forward: Why trampolines are bouncing back

FORGET coal and iron ore. Australia’s next big export market is here, and it’s not the sort of product you’d expect. Here’s why it could be our great leap forward.

Trampoline centre Bounce has just announced a major global expansion.

FORGET coal and iron ore. Australia’s next big export market is here: trampolines.

After years of stagnation, the Australian trampoline industry is in the midst of a great leap forward, with two companies leading the resurgence of the once-great backyard pastime.

One is premium trampoline maker Vuly, whose founder, 26-year-old Joe Andon, has spent the past four years building up his multimillion-dollar manufacturing business.

Vuly’s trampolines are pricey, ranging from $500 to $1600, but have amassed a loyal following. Mr Andon believes the Brisbane-based company will fall just short of 100,000 units this year.

“We started saying in 2012 that we wanted to ship 100,000 a year by 2015. I don’t think we’re going to get to 100,000 this year, but I don’t think we’re going to be far off,” he says.

Mr Andon is passionate about his product. While his isn’t the first company to make a springless model, he believes the Vuly is like the iPhone of trampolines, a “piece of designer furniture for your backyard”.

“Safety is a huge part of what we’re doing,” he says. “What we’ve done is prioritise safety above cost — it’s okay to make the product more expensive to eliminate as many safety issues as possible, and also make the product more visually appealing.”

News_Image_File: Brisbane-based Vuly Trampolines is at the forefront of the trampoline revolution.

Vuly has expanded sales into the US and has a factory in China, but isn’t selling trampolines there yet. Mr Andon says Vuly is working on some “very large deals” and intends to start retailing in the Chinese market soon.

Part of what makes Vuly’s model unique is not just the product itself, but the customer service around it. Vuly runs a seven-day customer service line, which Mr Andon says, like a lot of decisions the company makes, was “borne out of frustration”.

“Traditional trampolines had nuts and bolts and they would seize up all the time or the bolts would fall in the grass. If you’ve ever dropped a bolt into the grass, you know you’re not going to find it.

“Imagine it’s Christmas Eve, you’ve spent a lot of money, your kids are expecting a present, you drop a nut and your Christmas is ruined. Isn’t that bad design?”

Vuly’s trampolines, by comparison, have no bolts — everything clips together — and instead of a traditional frame linked to a mat with coil springs, uses leaf springs to suspend the mat.

News_Image_File: Joe Andon, founder and CEO of Vuly, now a multimillion-dollar manufacturing business.

While exact figures are hard to come by, industry sources place the size of the Australian trampoline market at around $75 million per year and growing.

That doesn’t include revenue from commercial trampoline centres like Bounce — the other side of this Aussie success story.

Bounce, which runs seven centres around the country with a combined turnover of around $40 million, has just signed a major deal which will see its franchise expand into the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, South Africa, Portugal and Sweden later this year.

Founder and chief executive Simon McNamara, former CEO of Boost Juice and Grill’d, says safety improvements in trampoline technology have helped the category as a whole.

“It’s had a massive impact,” he says. “When we first opened in 2012, people had the perception that trampolining was not safe. People have learnt. We’ve built a reputation for being a safe operator, and our injury statistics support that.”

News_Image_File: Bounce is forecasting a turnover of around $40 million in 2015.

In that time, Bounce has had more than two million customers through its doors and hosted more than 20,000 birthday parties, Mr McNamara says. As it expands internationally, Bounce is looking for franchisees to take over control of its four venues outside of Melbourne.

“When you’re trying to grow a business rapidly on the worldwide stage, to try at the same time to run a company-owned operation requires two different mindsets. So we made this decision to focus on growth.”

He says the trampolining category as a whole is growing, and the interest Bounce has seen from overseas franchisees proves its universality. “It’s an age-old activity that’s universally loved. When we opened in Dubai last year we received a huge amount of international inquiries. It really has a very broad appeal, across gender, culture, language. It took off in Dubai greater than any of our venues in Australia.”News_Rich_Media: InfinityList have collaborated with Bounce Inc to showcasing the amazing skills of the Bounce Free Jumping Revolution Team.

The international franchisees will each pay an upfront licensing fee, an additional per-venue fee, and a roughly nine per cent royalty and marketing levy.

He says it’s too early to predict revenues, but Bounce is clearly betting big on its global expansion. “It’s an exciting business and brand that is tapping into the broader market trends around health, wellbeing and fun.”

[e-mail]

News_Rich_Media: TRAMPOLINE