12 months down the line can you tell us how successful Orlando was?
In a word ‘unbelievable’ and this is the reason we are heavily investing in this show once again for 2011. Our main target area last year was the Pacific rim and since the show we have almost the whole region covered – we have now tied up deals and shipped product to Australia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. This has all come about on the back of the 2010 event, it meant quite a lot of follow up calls and travelling but it has been most definitely worth it. While our Japanese customer remains our largest even within a very short period of time Showoku (China) and Golf Clearance in Australia have become our second and third largest customers. The current volumes are like nothing we have experienced before and the potential is enormous as this region is expected to have massive levels of growth in the next 10 years.
How are these accounts being serviced?
As part of our dedication to this region and indeed our export customer base in general as of the 1st January we have opened up our own staffed warehouse in China that is carrying stock of our core lines. This facility will mean that export customers around the world will be able to order smaller quantities (in mixed containers), receive quick lead times and save huge amounts on freight. We believe this facility will give us a completely unique situation in the golf industry and will allow us to maximise potential from all markets regardless of size.
What marketing support are you offering to these new accounts?
We have done a number of deals with local high profile players in the various countries however as a general rule a lot of these distributors are doing their own marketing that is bespoke to their region. Just by way of a few examples right now our distributors in Thailand are running 75 slots on Thai national television to coincide with the Royal Trophy, the guys in Hong Kong have had a series of full page adverts in Golf Digest HK and in Australia they have a full time professional that has done over 100 demo days this year.
What are your goals for the 2011 show?
Of course we want to further strengthen our relationship with customers that we picked up at last year’s show and also those travelling from the UK and Europe however our main goal is to target new distributors and retailers in countries where we have no representation. This year we will have more of a focus on the Americas, as further to last year’s event we have recruited Mr Phil Wilson as International Sales manager for the Americas. Phil is based out of California and was global sales manager for Cleveland for 17 years, we believe with his contacts and experience we can start and attack plenty of new markets.
