With the science behind sport increasing rapidly, not only are elite athletes and scoring technologies constantly improving as technology advances, so too is the surface that sports are played on. Where a grassy patch or strip of asphalt used to do, now the surfaces that sports are played on are more advanced than ever. That’s what Sport Group does with its global key brands Polytan, Melos, and APTit creates synthetic, environmentally friendly surfaces for sport and recreation for everything from high-level elite sports to local playgrounds. While Polytan represents Sport Group’s projects business globally, Melos and APT are specialised in developing, producing, and selling the required systems or components.
CEO Frank Dittrich says that Sport Group is active in a niche market and aims to be the market leader within the industry. “Our business is a niche market and our key systems are running tracks, recreational surfaces, and artificial turf sports surfaces. That’s sports pitches for various applications like football, rugby, hockey, tennis any sport that is played on natural grass, you can play on artificial turf.” So far the group has installed more than 7,000 artificial pitches and 16,000 running tracks and recreational surfaces worldwide.
Frank’s background is in the construction industry, which although slightly different to his current role, has given him a good understanding of international project management and business expansion globally. “I have my roots in the international construction industry,”” Frank explains. ”I have been working for international groups for more or less the past 20 years.”
“In our business, what is important is a combination of production and installation with a focus on quality across these critical areas. Sport Group covers both of these key segments internally and this is one of the successful elements of our group. Of course, it’s extremely important to fully understand all the aspects of the project business globally, which is where my experience has been helpful. I used to work for a group of companies for about 10 years in various international management roles. With that came travel to different markets and an opportunity to understand the complexities of successfully managing international operations.”