specialreport
Golf Nation roll out stores across the UK
A
pril 2014 saw a big change in the company’s structure with a soſt launch into the Irish market of a retail division
which was marketed under the banner Golf Nation. Initially the company opened three stores in Northern Ireland however since March 2015 the business have added an additional 6 stores – 3 in Scotland, 2 in England and one in Dublin, bringing the total to 9 stores. A further two stores will be added in October of this year. The concept behind Golf Nation is two fold,
firstly to offer its own brands at a greatly reduced cost from RRP on the basis of a ‘factory to shelf’ model and secondly to bulk buy clearance deals from leading manufacturers. Unlike 95% of other retailers in the UK the company have no online presence, this includes Amazon and Ebay, thus companies can get rid of discontinued lines without fear that they are going to be sold cheaply all over the internet. Some major manufacturer’s have really seen the benefit of clearing large parcels of product with this protection in place.
Livingston Store
Over the past 20 years MD Golf have regularly reported on the successes of their company, especially when it comes to the export side of their business. At the last count they are shipping to around 25 countries around the world.
As well as owning the MD Golf brand the
company own 3 other brands and have exclusive UK/Worldwide licenses for 2 other brands – these brands fall into different product groups ensuring they have a house brand in each key category. Due to this rather unique model of direct importing and bulk buying the company believe that it has found a niche that is lacking within the UK market place. Over the last 5 years the high street has seen the growth of value retailers that offer a great product but at an affordable price key examples being Lidl, Aldi, Sports Direct, Poundland, etc. Michael Morton, managing director of MD
Belfast Store 32 SGBGOLF
Golf said “Its been a really huge transition for our business and we still have some things to achieve however we are absolutely delighted that we have made the move into retail in the domestic market as this gives us complete control of our destiny. The golf market has changed dramatically over the last 5 years with the internet causing huge problems for the industry. We had reached a point in our wholesale business in the UK were the only players leſt standing all had an online presence. As everyone knows the only real weapon these online people have is price. Thus if we wanted to maintain and grow our business in the UK the only way to do so in our old format was to sell to these online guys who cut prices, destroy our brand and undercut our valuable export business. We decided a better alternative was to
Doncaster Store
develop a retail model to drive business in the UK as not only did this mean we were in charge of our destiny locally it meant that we protected our overseas customers. Its been quite a challenge opening as many
stores as we have in 2015 however due to the volumes we have to commit to from the Far East and in order to get clearance packages from the brands we need multiple store locations to make this work. While its been a challenge I think everyone in our company has been enjoying what we have been doing and it’s a pleasant change selling to consumers who have a much more open mind to brands than we had been lead to believe!
Michael Morton Golf Network, MD House, Orchard Close Antrim BT41 2RZ Tel: ++44-2894-460333
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