The Polish company Oponeo selling tires via Internet proves that international e-commerce can also be successful in a specialized market.
History
The company was founded in Bydgoszcz in 2003 when online sales were gaining popularity. Its history, however, began in 1999, when the web portal opony.com.pl was established. Only two years later it started with great success selling tires and rims via the Internet. The store became profitable after just 14 months. The company also started building its own IT solutions for a broad platform for its products. In the meantime, Opony.com was renamed Oponeo.pl as we know it today.
In 2007 Oponeo debuted on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. The price oscillated around $1.75-$2, but the company’s shares went up twice in a dozen months. With the onset of the global financial crisis, Oponeo’s price dropped sharply to around $1.25. The rebound came in 2009 when the company started launching the first foreign online tire stores. In Spain, France, Germany, and Italy. Currently, the company operates in 13 countries. In Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Ireland, Slovakia, Turkey, Great Britain, and Hungary. Orders from the entire capital group are carried out thanks to a modern logistics center with 2 ha. It can send daily 35,000 tires to individual customers. The company also operates in two American states – Nevada and California.
However, the foreign expansion still accounts for a smaller share of the group’s revenues. In 2017, foreign markets brought only $37.75M in revenues, while the domestic market – $139M. It was a bit better year later – $45.5M (+20%) and $165M (+18%), respectively. In 2019, the group’s total sales amounted to $240.5M. With 3.7M tires sold and well over 100,000 rims.
Pandemia
However, the presence in foreign markets turned out to be one of the critical elements during the pandemic. Strong position in many countries made the effects of COVID-19 less severe than expected. In 2020, sales of passenger car tires increased by 16.8% in the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, and Ireland. In the case of the UK and Germany the dynamics were 23.8% and 84%, respectively. They are the most important sales markets for Oponeo outside Poland.
Oponeo is expanding not only geographically, but also in other industries. The company owns Dadelo, a platform for selling bicycles, which debuted on the stock exchange in December, 2020. On the stock exchange, Oponeo is currently worth about $177M.
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