Education & Tennis Career
Paul was a county tennis player and has a degree in Economics from the London School of Economics and a Masters in Philosophy from Birkbeck College London. He also spent six months at Lancaster business school studying Organisational Psychology.
Dunlop Slazenger
He worked initially for Dunlop Slazenger International becoming International Tennis Promotions Manager at 27. In this role he looked after players such as John McEnroe and Virginia Wade and was involved in tennis events throughout Europe with the WCT and in the UK through Wimbledon, Eastbourne, Edgbaston and Bournemouth.
Paul Watts Promotions
In 1985 he set up his own business Paul Watts Promotions and worked with Nied in Germany introducing the concept of Tennis windbreak advertising.
Penn tennis, where he handled the Logistics of their tennis promotion operation.
The BTCA, ( British Tennis Coaches Association) where he advised on marketing oppurtunities.
The Lawn Tennis Association and Volkswagen, where he handled the procurement of all promotional material and its distribution to over tournament venues annually.
Pro Kennex, where he handled the winter version of the LTA initiative
Record Tennis Centres- Paul was responsible for the marketing of this innovative tennis centre operation utilising tennis bubbles.
PWP
Later the company name was changed to PWP Sportbase and with time the company became well known as just PWP the leading European mail order racket specialist.
Sportbase was a specialist sport clearance business with a retail store in Reigate.
Because of the growth of PWP the company specialised in the racket sport market being the first to introduce the tennis catalogue and dominated the racketsport market for over 15 years.
The PWP retail side grew to include shops in Wimbledon, Farnham, Southampton , Letchworth and St Albans and Glasgow.
PWP involved itself in a number of joint ventures forming PWP REID which built Park Langley, Sutton Junior Tennis Centre and the Westway centre. Its innovative design utilising aircraft hangar technology revolutionised the market for indoor tennis, making it affordable for many clubs throughout the UK.
PWP also formed PWP Sports holidays which specialised in tennis holidays to Vale Do Lobo, La Manga , Lew Hoad tennis centre and Tennis El Casco.
PWP were also the first company to introduce Padel to UK in their 2012 catalogue. This sport is now booming all over Europe and has been taken under the wing of the LTA.
PWP embraced the internet as early adopters securing the domain name PWP.com and later TENNIS.NET as well as DISCOUNTSPORTS.COM and BADMINTON.COM. All these names became global number ones on Google and Yahoo and drove the business growth for many years.
Paul sold the business in 2014 to Mike Ashley at Sports Direct.
Sports Direct
Sportsdirect were seeking someone to look after there extensive racketsport operation which included Dunlop, Slazenger, Donnay and Carlton as well as their multimillion pound racketsport retail operation. In this role Paul was responsible for overseeing the promotional activity of the in house brands as well as the global product ranges. He was also responsible for overseeing the third party product bought from brands such as Wilson, Head, Babolat, Nike, Adidas and many more.
Paul was also involved in licensing where he brokered a multimillion pound licensing deal between Slazenger and Pepkor in South Africa 5,000 plus store business operating in the clothing and footwear market.
Paul Watts
director
PAUL@WATTSSPORT.COM
01342 893321
0780 3080963
Hayley Watts
Director
HAYLEY@WATTSSPORT.COM
01342 893321
0780 3080962