EU Expansion & Operational Reset for a Sports Equipment Brand

Client:
A fast-growing hockey / padel equipment brand preparing to expand into the EU.

Challenge:
The founder was scaling quickly but facing increasing complexity across fulfilment, VAT, and channel strategy. Their existing EU setup (based in Germany) was creating unnecessary cost and operational friction, and there was uncertainty around the right balance between Shopify DTC and Amazon as they expanded.

What we worked on:

• Reviewed and restructured their EU & UK fulfilment setup, including 3PL selection

• Supported Shopify vs Amazon DTC decision-making, clarifying where each channel made sense

• Reworked their VAT and market-entry structure, moving EU operations from Germany to the Netherlands

• Pressure-tested unit economics across markets to identify margin leakage and working capital risk

• Helped the founder prioritise execution steps and ignore non-critical distractions

Outcome:

• ~30% reduction in fulfilment and logistics costs through improved 3PL selection

• Cleaner, more scalable EU VAT and fulfilment structure

• Clearer channel strategy between Shopify and Amazon

• Founder left with a prioritised action plan and confidence in their expansion roadmap

Why it mattered:
Instead of scaling complexity and cost, the brand was able to expand into the EU with a simpler, more margin-efficient setup - avoiding mistakes that often only become visible months later.