{"id":2180529,"date":"2026-10-12T00:18:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T23:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/northwest\/?p=2180529"},"modified":"2026-10-23T08:49:28","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T07:49:28","slug":"the-monday-interview-a-game-and-a-chat-with-soul-padel-founder-mark-hewlett","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/northwest\/news\/2180529-the-monday-interview-a-game-and-a-chat-with-soul-padel-founder-mark-hewlett","title":{"rendered":"From running Covid testing to rolling out Soul Padel Mark Hewlett’s story is wild"},"content":{"rendered":"

One day I will have played more games of padel than I have written articles about the racket sport sweeping across Britain. But not this week. It’s fair to say my first game at Soul Padel’s Stockport site included a few learnings: stop using big tennis swings, time your shots off the glass wall, and appreciate that the smaller racket doesn’t offer a top spin option. It all took some getting used to, but I did play my part in a creditable 4-3 game, before we ran out of time. <\/span><\/p>\n

I was cued up for a session with the Soul Timers (lads my age) at Soul Padel by founder Mark Hewlett, a man not short on ambition for the business and the sport.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hewlett believes padel is still at the foothills of its growth in Britain. Spain, where the sport has been established for decades, has around 16,000 courts; the UK has about 2,000, he says, with many not readily accessible to the public. With 26,000 tennis courts in Britain, he sees room for the sport to expand substantially.<\/span><\/p>\n

Though born in Wigan and a former rugby player with Orrell, Hewlett and his family had been living in Australia when Covid stopped everything. Locked down in Melbourne, he got a call from the UK government to come back and help run the test-and-trace programme, partly because of the logistics and retail experience he’d gained over a career with Lidl, Aldi, and Woolworths down under.<\/span><\/p>\n

That job completed, he was looking for something new, possibly in sport, and looked at padel clubs in Portugal that were thriving.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Soul Padel coaching sessions<\/p><\/div>\n

As a result, Soul Padel\u2019s expansion plans are ambitious. The business has now raised \u00a37.5m from cornerstone investor Armina Ahmed, family offices and a vehicle that allowed smaller retail investors to participate. So far there are four clubs open, two under construction and seven more with planning in place. Hewlett\u2019s longer-term target is 250 courts by 2032, and he says the new investment is a significant milestone.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve spent the last few years proving and refining our model, learning from our clubs and putting the foundations in place to grow with confidence.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe continued backing of investors who have been with us from the beginning, alongside new investors joining the business, reflects both what we’ve built and the opportunity ahead.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve always believed that building a successful padel business is about much more than putting courts in the ground. From taking padel into schools and creating dedicated communities for women and older players, to investing in loyalty and customer data, we’ve consistently tried to anticipate what the market will need next.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The operating model is deliberately lean: relatively low rents, significant investment in the courts and a simple offer; no alcohol or hot food, avoiding the extra complexity and costs those services bring. It doesn’t use dynamic pricing, instead blending peak and off-peak bookings with lower-cost programmes.<\/span><\/p>\n

But expansion, in Hewlett\u2019s view, has to be handled carefully. \u201cI think we\u2019ve got to be careful about how we grow it,” he says. “I think we\u2019ve got to continue to be focused on the participation rather than the profits.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But growth, he argues, must be matched by participation. \u201cWe can\u2019t make money unless we\u2019re looking after the communities,\u201d he says. Soul Padel\u2019s approach is to combine accessible courts with programmes designed to bring different groups into the game.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

That includes Soul Timers, for players over 50, and Soul Sisters, a popular women-only programme that mixes social and competitive play. There are family sessions for \u00a315 an hour, student sessions for as little as \u00a35 for two hours, and off-peak rates. The company also runs <\/span>What\u2019s That Racket<\/span><\/i>, offering local schoolchildren free court time and coaching. Hewlett says the initiative has introduced 2,500 children to padel over the past two years.<\/span><\/p>\n

Site selection is central to the growth plan. Hewlett says competition for suitable locations has intensified, and the company is willing to walk away when rent expectations make a site unviable. It is particularly interested in underused space at retail parks, where spare car-park land can be repurposed and existing parking remains available to customers.<\/span><\/p>\n

The model is built around keeping the economics sustainable. \u201cIt\u2019s low rent, reasonably high capex, but we run our clubs lean and efficient,\u201d Hewlett says. He is wary of expensive indoor sites and of financial plans that assume high utilisation will continue indefinitely.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve learnt a huge amount from our first locations. We know what we’re looking for in a location, a town and a partner, and we have much greater insight into the communities we’re entering.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe next 12 months will take us from four to ten clubs, but we’re not trying to create ten identical venues. We have a proven model and programmes that we know work, while every Soul Padel club will be shaped by its local community. That’s fundamental to how we believe a national brand should grow.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Stockport facility<\/p><\/div>\n

Finding the right sites is another challenge. Competition has intensified, Hewlett says, and the company is prepared to reject deals where rents do not stack up.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At the Stockport site, next door to the sports retailer Decathon, with an underused car park, the courts have helped create a significant local market for padel equipment, and it\u2019s the biggest padel equipment retail store in the country.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDo you want to spend 200 quid before you\u2019ve even tried it, or do you give us a fiver?\u201d he says. \u201cYou know, it\u2019s win-win.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That wasn\u2019t his verdict after watching me getting to grips with a racket, but I have to admit, it\u2019s pretty addictive.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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