Market News, Category Winners and Rainy Days

 

The September retail sales data for the UK golf market has been published by Circana’s Golf Datatech and we can see the market was down, overall, by -2%. This puts us -1.9% down year to date,  in line with expectations.

 

Sales Summary

Across the main categories, Clubs was the hardest hit, with sales down -7%. Consumables were also down -3%. On the upside, Apparel had good month, up +4.8%.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, with all the rain, the best category was Outerwear, which was up +18% in value and +20% units.

When the weather is poor, people don't play as much golf and tend to go to shops or ranges.  With that in mind, we can also see that the on-course channel was hit harder than off-course: Down -5%, whereas off-course stores did better +2%.

Ball sales were also affected by the weather and subsequent lack of play, with a drop in ball sales of -6% in units.

The big-ticket items, Woods and Irons, performed worse than Putters and Wedges, which are up in sales. As we talked about in last month’s report, this was likely due to buying cycles being brought forward.

Interestingly, the best performing category this year is Distance Devices, which is one of three categories that has seen a reduction in average selling price (ASP) year to date.

 

Rain Days Affecting Play .. Affecting Sales

On the weather front, September was wetter again. On average, in September, we would usually lose 12 days to ‘rain days’ but this was 13.5 days this year, 10% more than we’d expect.

For data purposes, a day that sees more than 1mm of rain is classed as a ‘rain day’, ie sufficient rain to likely prevent golfers from wanting to go out on the course.

September also experienced 25% more rain than normal, meaning on the days it rained, rainfall was heavier.

Across general retail, sales volumes fell -1.1% in September, of which non-food store volumes fell 2.1% and it’s believed that both the cost of living and wet weather contributed to this.  When it comes to golf, the reason for the fall in the market is largely due to the weather. However, if you look closer at the categories that are struggling, ie, Woods and Irons, I do believe there are a few nerves about the economy and looming budget.  The new government has plans to spend a lot of money but it can only do that if it hits peoples’ pockets. Fortunately, the golf market is less susceptible than others – it’s a lifestyle activity and these sports tend to protect themselves a bit better than others.  Watch this space.

Looking forward, October is usually a smaller month than September. Last year, October saw -20% less value than September.  The month is very weather-dependent and there is also less opportunity to play with the shorter days.  Saying that, October is still a very significant month in terms of total values and is usually about the sixth-largest month in the year.

On average, most months this year have been down in sales on 2023 so it isn’t unreasonable to expect the same in October. October last year was wet and we’ve seen a lot of rain so far this month, so I’d expect a small decline in on-course sales and possibly a stronger performance for off-course stores.  Last year was particularly wet, so if we can have a drier second half this October, there may be some better news at the end of the month.

 

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