On days like today, it is time to look back and visualise everything that has happened in the 12 intense months of this year that is about to come to an end.
The big headline would be that we have reached record figures: Sports Emotion closes this year with €130m in turnover compared to €80m last year. And growing in all business units: online, retail and teamsports.
But that number is just the sum of many parts. We are particularly proud of our milestone Basketball Emotion, which in its first year of life has already reached €8 million turnover and won the European award for best new retail brand at the prestigious Mapic Awards held in Cannes. We demonstrate that we can successfully replicate our specialist business approach to other verticals, while remaining true to our credentials of omni-channeling, specialisation, authentication and credibility with the consumer and our suppliers.
Also our physical retail, which this year has continued to increase its format both in terms of quality - by reiterating our shop model - and quantity - with new openings in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, new openings in the Vaguada Shopping Centre in Madrid, Granada in Nevada Shopping and our second shop in Milan. We have increased this business unit so much in the last 24 months that this year is the first in which our physical channel has surpassed the digital channel in sales.
Our equipment area continues to grow, now managing more than 1,000 clubs in Spain, Portugal, Italy and France. Undoubtedly, this is the business line that has grown the most within our company in recent years. Providing real added value to both the clubs and the more than 350,000 players we dress every year.
And also demonstrating that we are able to manage omnichannel retail businesses for professional clubs such as Mallorca, Real Zaragoza or SD Huesca, maximising the return and customer experience with our processes.
Our APPs, which already account for 20% of online sales and will play a key role in our new Member programme, are also particularly important. In addition to the Fútbol Emotion APP and the consolidation of Yulava, we are now adding our Basketball Emotion APP, which is already being used by thousands of people both on their devices and in our kiosks in our physical shops.
As we take stock of the year, it is time to review the resolutions we set ourselves for the year that is coming to a close. And self-critical as always, we have been aware that digesting all this growth is not always a bed of roses. Managing several verticals, more and more and bigger shops, managing M&A integrations, growing strongly internationally... It makes the company more complex and despite trying to professionalise the company as much as possible, it is normal that not everything works as it should.
Despite strong growth, we have not achieved the sales forecast or the margin we set at the beginning of the year, which has meant that, despite positive profitability, our financial results are far from what we had hoped for. These are the challenges of a company that in 2024 has multiplied its sales by 4 compared to its turnover in 2021. With our slogan ‘Be The Best’ as our banner, it is clear to us that with ambition and humility, we will be able to continue building a growing company with increasingly solid foundations thanks to teamwork.
A team that also makes all the difference. We have more than 700 colleagues in the company, with new additions that come to reinforce our team with their experience. For the whole team we have developed programmes such as Feel Good to pamper the mental and physical health of the team with SportTips. Or Women Accelerate, to promote female talent. As proof of this, both in terms of job growth and the more qualitative and cultural aspect, our people management won the Talento Empleo Aragón award in the Large Company category, a fact that makes us proud as it rewards our work with our team.
Our business is about people, but it's also about specialist products. To manage this, we have expanded our warehouse space with new facilities from 7,000 to 30,000 square metres and started to automate parts of our process, with dedicated warehouses for operations such as Teamsports.
If we talk about product, we cannot avoid talking about brands, without which our project would be meaningless. We are really aware of the relevant role we are playing in Europe, trying to become the best sports specialist through our digital approach, experiences, content and with our high concept of physical retail. Thanks to big brands like adidas, Nike and Puma we are growing hand in hand to create an innovative project around the hyper-specialist product.
This year we have also innovated: we have raffled a great car for 5 years among all our Back To Football buyers, we have dyed the fields pink with our charity laces against cancer, or lived dozens of experiences with our customers in shop events with luxury guests such as Carvajal. Also our first tournament: The 1st Emotion Football Cup brought together national and international teams in Huesca to show their talent in a tournament full of emotion and camaraderie.
And for 2025, we only want to continue the line of consolidation begun in 2024. We are committed to continuing to solidify the foundations, always faithful to our values, creating a great project that will last over time and make us proud. Playing every day as if the game had just started. But also growing steadily, without running? Or do we? We like to create, and a new sports vertical will see the light of day in 2025. In addition, in the early stages of 2025 we will launch our Member programme, seeking to make our relationship with the consumer more relevant through experiences, purchasing advantages, product and services.
And we still have a lot more in the pipeline that we can't reveal yet. You'll have to wait for our 2025 Wrapped. Let's keep moving.
