The Golfalot.com Price Index of UK golf equipment enjoyed another month of stability in October. Overall the index remained almost completely static as an influx of new models from Ping was offset by reductions on other brands as retailers continue to make plans for new stock for a number of manufacturers.
The Club sector grew by just under 0.3% with the Fairway Woods category performing most impressively with growth of 3.2% following the arrival of three new models across the Ping G15 and i15 ranges and relative stability from older models. The arrival of the new Ping models gave the Utility Clubs category a boost with a rise of 1.4%. The Wedges category was up just over 1% as small reductions from last month were removed across a range of manufacturers, including Wilson, Srixon and Ping.
A drop of -1.7% meant the Putters category was the worst performing across the golf club sector thanks in large part to reductions across the Callaway range of putters as retailers anticipate the arrival of the new Callaway Odyssey White Ice models in the middle of November. The Driver category welcomed three new Ping drivers but reductions on models by MD Golf, Callaway and Hippo combined to register an overall fall of just -0.5%. The Irons category remained broadly static recording only a negligible drop.
It was a month of very little movement in any of the Accessories categories and overall the sector fell by less 0.2%. The Golf Bags category posted positive growth of 0.3% but Golf Balls and Golf Shoes both dropped by 0.5% and Golf Trolleys fell by half that amount. With a number of leading manufacturers announcing their new accessories lines over last few weeks it won’t be long before these new products begin to make an impact across the sector.
Almost all the large manufacturers have had a busy month releasing new golf equipment with high profile launches coming from Titleist, FootJoy, Nike, Callaway and Srixon across all the Golfalot.com Price Index categories. At the moment both retailers and consumers have to be patient as they wait for these new products to join Ping’s i15 and G15 ranges in reaching the shop floor as many are not available until late 2009 or early 2010.
The expected injection of so much new stock brings many reasons for optimism and, in the meantime, another impressively solid month of stability leaves the Golfalot.com Price Index in good shape as the Christmas sales rush coincides with the arrival of so many high quality, ‘must have’ products.
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