THE MARKETPLACE is serving up more than premium necessities.
The supermarket brand stepped onto the court for its first-ever padel tournament, bringing together players of different skill levels for a weekend built around sport, wellness, and community.
Held at Padel 300 in Makati on September 26 and 27, the inaugural The Marketplace Padel Tournament featured five divisions, with former PBA player Sol Mercado among those who took home a title after winning the men’s intermediate division alongside Josh Kachmarik.
The Marketplace's padel venture
The tournament marked The Marketplace’s venture further into the fitness space, extending the brand’s focus on wellness beyond what customers put in their carts and into how they spend their time outside the supermarket.
“At The Marketplace, we want to support our customers beyond the supermarket by being part of the activities they enjoy,” said Stanley Co, president and CEO of Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc..
“We can help with the practical things players need before and after a game, while also creating opportunities for people to come together through initiatives like our first-ever The Marketplace Padel Tournament.”
With padel continuing to grow in the Philippines, the sport offered The Marketplace a natural entry point into an increasingly active community.
For Christine Tueres, managing director for the Food Segment for Big Formats, padel reflects the way the brand sees its customers’ lifestyles evolving.
“The Marketplace has always tried to understand how our customers live, not just what they buy from us. Padel feels like a natural extension of that,” Tueres said.
While the racket sport has been gaining ground locally, it has already become an established part of active lifestyles in several international markets, particularly in Europe, where many of the brands carried by The Marketplace originate.
That made the tournament more than just a weekend competition for the supermarket brand. It became an opportunity to bring its assortment of nutrition, hydration, and wellness products closer to the people who use them.
“At The Marketplace, we want to be a partner in our customers’ everyday wellness. That includes helping them prepare for and recover from activities such as padel,” Tueres said.
The tournament featured novice and intermediate divisions across men’s, women’s, and mixed categories, giving players an avenue to compete regardless of where they stood on the padel learning curve.
Co sees that accessibility as one of the sport’s biggest draws.
“Padel is fun, and you do not have to think of yourself as very sporty to enjoy it,” he said. “The walls give the game a different feel, and because you play with other people, it is naturally a social experience.”
Beyond the competition, that social element is also what makes padel fit naturally into The Marketplace’s push toward active living.
“You are getting exercise, but it also does not feel too intimidating. I think that is why it can appeal to many Filipinos, including those who may not normally take up a sport,” Co added.
On court, the weekend produced five sets of champions.
Tetsuya Iida and Yumi Eguchi topped the mixed novice division, while Roxanne Khalil and Ching Magno claimed the women’s novice title. JM Tayao and Junee Sibangan emerged as the men’s novice champions.
In the intermediate divisions, Finina Lava and Victoria Lee won the women’s title, while Kachmarik and Mercado took the men’s crown.
For The Marketplace, the tournament represents another step toward becoming part of its customers’ routines beyond the grocery run. From the supermarket aisle to the padel court, it is betting that wellness can be more than a shopping choice. It can be a lifestyle, too.
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