SPECIALFEATURE
MD Golf Celebrate 5th consecutive year at the PGA Show in Orlando
SGB caught up with managing director of MD Golf Michael Morton to discuss the company’s ongoing support of the PGA Show.
Your company annually has a pretty big presence at the show, can you elaborate? I have been attending the PGA Show since
1997 and it is the one time in the year that all the key industry figures from around the globe are in one place at the same time. We used to schedule all our meetings at the international business centre but 5 years ago we made the decision that if we were genuinely serious about developing a global brand we had to be out on the main floor and with a decent sized booth – creating the right impression with key accounts we felt was vital. We started with a 500sq ſt and this has gradually increased over the 5 year period and this year will see our biggest presence at 800sq ſt.
also get a good number of contacts from ‘walk ons’ who are just walking the show and looking for brands that will give them the edge.
Will you continue to support the show in future years? Most definitely…Normally we rent a booth but
this year we have made a long term investment into the show by purchasing a booth which will be permanently stored in Orlando. While this is a big outlay for the company we believe the show is fundamental to the growth in our business and aſter a few years by owning our own stand the cost of attending will be greatly reduced.
Do you plan to do any other shows in 2014? We will be at Harrogate this year, after not
What are your goals at the show? Firstly we get to see all our existing
customers from all over the world, we now are trading in 35 countries and while I visit most of these guys at least once a year we can jam them all into a 3 day period and save a huge amount of travel time. With some of these international partners it is very important that we are seen to be at this show it creates the right impression and makes them feel part of something. The second aim is to recruit new customers we have a global target list of all the main retailers and annually we try and see them on the booth, in some cases it may take 2-3 years before we get them on board but our attitude is total persistence with the guys that really count. We
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attending for around 5 years we went to the 2013 show and while the show was small we were impressed with the level of orders we wrote and the overall attendance of manufacturers and the trade. We are also considering the Nordic fair as we have heard good things about this but probably the most exciting show for us is our attendance at the JPGA Show in Japan in February. Myself and my partner have been attending this show since 2003 and while it is smaller in size than Orlando it actually has more visitors – last year there were 50,000 people at it! At certain busy times you can hardly get down the aisles! We have booked a
pretty decent stand and will have an Aston Martin on the booth which should create a real point of interest.
Why are you doing the JPGA Show? While the Japanese show is much less
international it has steadily become THE Asian show and as such a number of our customers from the region come to this show instead of making the long journey to Orlando. The big guys will still make the trip but it is a chance for us to see some of our smaller ones and raise the profile of the brand. We have found that making the effort in this region is absolutely vital to a successful business, the Asians really appreciate that you have taken the time to come and see them and as such do their best to support you.
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