Mark up on clubs?

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I'm in the process of buying new irons (Mizuno's), whilst trying to get the best price with my local Pro, he almost had me crying telling me how small the margin was on them. So, does anyone know what sort of margin there is on the major brands of golf clubs?
 
I had it from a reliable source that the cost price on R11 driver is very much lower than RRP (close to 3 figures). That was from a pro shop and not a multi national with bigger buying power
 
Being good friends with my local pro he has told me some things of how the companies work.
He was at the trade show in Harrogate and he had to sign up to do prebooks with the companies.
A prebook is basically him committing to taking certain quantities of stock over the period of the year. The larger the prebook the better terms he can then avail of during that year.
Titleist he commits himself to taking 100 Dozen ProV each month from March to October, This then allows him to obtain hardware at better prices and remain competitive against the large retailers as AG.
TM he had to commit himself to so many balls and so many sets of irons and drivers for the coming year even though they were not shown what the actual product looks like not even a photo. That was just to be able to get the product on release dates. Those that wouldnt commit to a prebook were told that they will not get the new product for approx 3 months after those that do.
Now remember that if he orders too much to obtain good prices and those items do not sell then he has stock that he will at some stage have to sell at less than cost.
Ping will give every 4th item 50% off so if he gets 4 sets of irons then the 4th set will be 50% off, the other 3 are sold out at pretty much cost price. Same for drivers/fairways etc.
Mizuno offer every 10th set of irons free. But the normal club pro will rarely sell 10 sets of mizuno irons in a year.
Callaway are the only company that offer him full sale or return on hardware provided the protective seals are still on them. So no demo marks or tape marks. This will be on top of the prebook of balls etc he makes, Though he made a prebook of 14,000 Top Flite balls and actually had them sold within 2 months and had to order the same twice more.

Now given that my pro actually has 3 shops one of which is at a club with 1000 members and the other at a driving range/par 3/ pay and play par71 he would be selling much more than a normal pro shop would which enables him to make the large prebooks to get the higher discounts. I imagine other pros would struggle to get the discounts my pro does.

Going by what my own pro has told me i would believe what your pro has said about the Mizuno to be true.
 
Phil2511 said:
Being good friends with my local pro he has told me some things of how the companies work.
He was at the trade show in Harrogate and he had to sign up to do prebooks with the companies.
A prebook is basically him committing to taking certain quantities of stock over the period of the year. The larger the prebook the better terms he can then avail of during that year.
Titleist he commits himself to taking 100 Dozen ProV each month from March to October, This then allows him to obtain hardware at better prices and remain competitive against the large retailers as AG.
TM he had to commit himself to so many balls and so many sets of irons and drivers for the coming year even though they were not shown what the actual product looks like not even a photo. That was just to be able to get the product on release dates. Those that wouldnt commit to a prebook were told that they will not get the new product for approx 3 months after those that do.
Now remember that if he orders too much to obtain good prices and those items do not sell then he has stock that he will at some stage have to sell at less than cost.
Ping will give every 4th item 50% off so if he gets 4 sets of irons then the 4th set will be 50% off, the other 3 are sold out at pretty much cost price. Same for drivers/fairways etc.
Mizuno offer every 10th set of irons free. But the normal club pro will rarely sell 10 sets of mizuno irons in a year.
Callaway are the only company that offer him full sale or return on hardware provided the protective seals are still on them. So no demo marks or tape marks. This will be on top of the prebook of balls etc he makes, Though he made a prebook of 14,000 Top Flite balls and actually had them sold within 2 months and had to order the same twice more.

Now given that my pro actually has 3 shops one of which is at a club with 1000 members and the other at a driving range/par 3/ pay and play par71 he would be selling much more than a normal pro shop would which enables him to make the large prebooks to get the higher discounts. I imagine other pros would struggle to get the discounts my pro does.

Going by what my own pro has told me i would believe what your pro has said about the Mizuno to be true.
Click to expand...

What club is it phil with the 1000 members? Never really had a good look in ur clubshop!
 
It is a club in ROI.
Our shop is just the shop here (there is already a pro that just teaches) but he is also the pro (although employs a pro to work there) at Scrabo and also at Ardee in County Louth.
You should mate they will beat any price from anywhere else.
 
Will def look in as usually get my change for the ball machine thats bout it. Try to use our pro as much as possible to support them but our shop isnt great although got my new santa present from him a titleist 910 D2 driver at a great price.
 
SammmeBee said:
<10%
Click to expand...

Think it's a bit more than that....;)
I have just bought some new clubs. American Golf have them on "special offer" at £549.00.
Mine cost me £385.00. Exactly the same number of clubs and the guy who sold them to me still made a profit. Don't know how much, but it couldn't have been a lot.
 
Last edited:
Thistime last year I bought a set of Titleist AP2's in my own custom fit. The pro charged me £620 and when they were invoieced to him he realised he had not added the tight price for the grips and actually made about £5 on the set as a result. This was confirmed by a different pro. So if the grips were about £60 extra, on this deal it would be about 10%


Chris
 
I paid about 460 for my titleist zb. This was what titleist charged, plus 5 per club. So for 8 irons, the pro made 40, so the actual price of the sticks was 420. They were retailing at nearer 600.
 
Our club pro works on anything between 20%-30%. However you can get lot of items usually clothing at cost if you are prepared to wait.
 
I do not think that these pros can make much really. I remember when my dad bought me my first set of premium golf clubs. It was the original Titleist DCi gold they were the top of the range clubs. That was over 20 years ago. If I remember correctly he paid about £500 for them. So taking into consideration it costs around the£600 mark for sets of Titleist irons they have not gone up that much in price. Definitely not in line with the rate of inflation.
 
I'd love to know how much it costs the manufacturers to make clubs per unit, as it's not the retailers who are making the profit.

There is a really serious economic debate to be had about the cost of golf gear and business models, but it would be modded into oblivion, as GM is also dependent on a harmonious relationship with the manufacturers, just as the retailers are. Shame really.
 
Monty_Brown said:
I'd love to know how much it costs the manufacturers to make clubs per unit, as it's not the retailers who are making the profit.

There is a really serious economic debate to be had about the cost of golf gear and business models, but it would be modded into oblivion, as GM is also dependent on a harmonious relationship with the manufacturers, just as the retailers are. Shame really.
Click to expand...

Why would there be a serious economic debate to be had specifically for golf gear over and above any other retail product - the business model is pretty much the same as many other industries I suspect?

I think the problem is that we as a nation have gone off the idea of anyone actually being able to make money because we know or want to know how much everything costs, and then don't really want to factor in all the other associated costs with getting that item from the production line to the consumer's house.

Just my opinion, but I don't think everyone knowing the raw cost or trade price of everything is particularly beneficial to business as a whole - not just the golf industry.
 
Did you know for instance that your £1000 telly probably costs less than £100 to make?

Golf is no different as Jezz says to any other manufactured product.
 
JezzE said:
Why would there be a serious economic debate to be had specifically for golf gear over and above any other retail product - the business model is pretty much the same as many other industries I suspect?

I think the problem is that we as a nation have gone off the idea of anyone actually being able to make money because we know or want to know how much everything costs, and then don't really want to factor in all the other associated costs with getting that item from the production line to the consumer's house.

Just my opinion, but I don't think everyone knowing the raw cost or trade price of everything is particularly beneficial to business as a whole - not just the golf industry.
Click to expand...

You're probably right Jezz that golf is similar to other areas of retail. My experience of working in golf retail for a few years was a real eye-opener though. I have no objection to profit, far from it, but I do object to the way that profit is distributed. Perhaps I'm just naive. In fact I probably am ;)
 
murphthemog said:
Did you know for instance that your £1000 telly probably costs less than £100 to make?

Golf is no different as Jezz says to any other manufactured product.
Click to expand...

Well as long as consumers are being ripped off in every area of expenditure, that's ok then :o

*thumbs through collected writings of Karl Marx* ;)
 
JezzE said:
Why would there be a serious economic debate to be had specifically for golf gear over and above any other retail product - the business model is pretty much the same as many other industries I suspect?

I think the problem is that we as a nation have gone off the idea of anyone actually being able to make money because we know or want to know how much everything costs, and then don't really want to factor in all the other associated costs with getting that item from the production line to the consumer's house.

Just my opinion, but I don't think everyone knowing the raw cost or trade price of everything is particularly beneficial to business as a whole - not just the golf industry.
Click to expand...

Spot on Jezz.......try selling green fees at the moment,every golfer is wanting a £30 green fee or a £500 sub for way less and outwith the premier clubs it's a buyers market....no wonder clubs are struggling big time.

All costs are spiraling,some going up 15% on last but put your subs/green fees up more than 5% and there are many moans and groans.
 
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