A Czech e-commerce company specializing in outdoor gear is experiencing meaningful growth as it expands across Europe. 4camping.cz, founded in 2012, surpassed $50 million in revenue in 2025, fueled by a pandemic-era surge and strategic investments in automation and retail locations. The company is now focusing on solidifying its presence in twelve European markets while navigating increased competition and rising advertising costs.
A Czech e-commerce company specializing in camping and outdoor gear has experienced remarkable growth, exceeding $50 million in revenue in 2025. 4camping.cz, founded in 2012, surpassed 1.12 billion Czech crowns (approximately $50 million USD) in sales last year, generating a profit of around 50 million crowns ($2.2 million USD).
ForCamping, the company behind the online retailer, reported total revenues of over 913 million crowns ($40.5 million USD) in 2024, with an EBITDA profit of 59.2 million crowns ($2.6 million USD).
The rapid expansion began during the COVID-19 pandemic, moving beyond its initial base in Slovakia to now include 12 additional markets, including Poland, Germany, Austria, Italy, and France. The company’s focus for this year is stabilizing these new markets and attracting a wider customer base.
“We have ambitious plans. This year, we aim for 28 percent growth and to approach 1.5 billion crowns ($66 million USD) in revenue,” director Ondřej Žák told news outlet SZ. Investment in warehouse automation, which began last year, will continue. Plans include launching an autonomous packing line that intelligently creates boxes tailored to the size of the product. “The boxes will be smaller, reducing material and filler usage. This will also save space during delivery,” Žák explained.
Automation is expected to reduce box sizes by up to 15 percent. Investments in warehouse logistics automation will reach 150 million crowns ($6.6 million USD) between 2025 and 2027.
For a lower-margin player like 4Camping, which doesn’t have local warehouses in foreign markets but distributes packages from a single central warehouse near Pardubice, reducing package size could be a crucial detail in a fiercely competitive market against chains like Decathlon, Hudy, Rock Point, and online marketplaces with aggressive pricing strategies.
While 4Camping views marketplaces as competition, they don’t consider them a major obstacle. They do acknowledge, however, that they have contributed to the rising cost of advertising space. “Performance marketing in our category is becoming 10-30 percent more expensive year-over-year. However, thanks to investments in our brand, we’ve managed to keep the cost-per-revenue ratio at practically the same level,” said marketing director Zbyšek Pochylý, praising the success of the company’s first television and billboard advertising campaign.
From Tent Exhibitions to Europe
4camping was founded in 2012 by outdoor enthusiasts Petr Burián and Jaroslav Skalka, who rescued a tent exhibition at the Czech Technical University in Prague that was facing financial difficulties. They decided to transition tents and outdoor equipment into a year-round business, establishing an online store.
At the time, it was a small local player. Only seven out of ten Czechs had internet access, and far fewer were willing to shop online. The appetite for spending in the digital world gradually grew, and it became clear that this was an unstoppable trend. However, entrepreneurs also realized that simply being online wasn’t enough.
“One of the important decisions was to invest in a retail network, stores with pick-up points,” Žák recalls. The first store opened in 2014, and the company now manages nearly thirty brick-and-mortar branches in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, and Romania. Another store will open in Košice in February.
The retailer first ventured abroad in 2015, with Slovakia being the logical choice. A significant turning point came with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Since then, 4camping has expanded into twelve additional countries.
The largest wave of expansion came in the last two years, with the opening of markets in Germany, Poland, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, France, and Spain.
“The decision of where to go is based on a relatively complex analysis that compares, for example, how people in a given country spend their free time, competitor analysis, and a comparison of advertising prices. We also need to find a suitable manager. It took us a long time to find someone for Germany, so we delayed entry,” Žák explained.
The Czech Republic generates around half of total revenue, but the goal is to reduce this to approximately 20-30 percent to make the business less dependent on a single market. The company also aims to gain greater independence through its own brands. In addition to private label brands Warg, Zulu, and Mooa, it acquired a majority stake in Sušice-based Sport Schwarzkopf, a manufacturer of High Point outdoor equipment that was facing financial difficulties. Some of the production for the retailer’s brand portfolio comes from Asia.
The e-shop originally focused on selling goods for campers, such as tents, sleeping bags, and mats. This segment now accounts for only around 20 percent of sales. Clothing is now the best-selling category. The e-shop reported a 28 percent increase in sales last year, and climbing equipment is growing even faster.
