As a number of U.S. retailers (Target and J. Crew for starters) look to Canada for substantial growth opportunities, a Canadian retailer has set its sights on expanding south of the border. Golf Town, the Markham-based golf equipment and apparel retailer, is opening five locations in Boston, Mass. later this month with plans for seven more in that market over the next two years.
“We’d like to have stores in all markets in the U.S. eventually,” said Golf Town president and CEO Stephen Bebis, who founded the chain 13 years ago. With aggressive expansion plans in the U.S. that could eventually result in as many as 600 locations coast-to-coast, Bebis explained to Marketing why, despite its ailing economy, it’s a good time to enter the U.S. market.
What opportunities do you see for the Golf Town brand in the U.S.?
The way we approach retail and marketing, we’re very very revolutionary in our space. We offer a different way to buy golf equipment and we market aggressively. We’re bringing that success we’ve had in Canada to the U.S. We’re going to walk before we run. So we’re opening five stores in Boston on the same day and then we’re going to open up a couple more and, hopefully, eventually be 12 in that market over the next couple of years. Then we’ll evaluate our success and continue to grow across America.
Why make this move now?
The economy is pretty much bottomed out so it’s a good time to enter. You don’t want to enter at the top. It’s a market that’s wide open for us from a competitive standpoint. There’s really nobody else offering what we’re going to offer in the New England market. The U.S. can accommodate a lot more stores. We have 54 up here, but we can put a lot more than 54 in the U.S. I don’t know how many, but I’m sure we can put a lot more there.
With the state of the U.S. economy–and hobbies aren’t necessarily recession proof–what makes you think there’s a market for a golf retailer in Boston right now?
New England is much different than the rest of the U.S. Golf rounds are up in New England. New England did not suffer from the recession as other markets. It has the lowest unemployment rate in the United States. It has a pretty stable economy, the mortgage crisis didn’t hit it, and there are a lot of new homes in big development tracks. So it’s, relatively speaking, a pretty healthy economy in New England. There are lots of golf courses, avid players and it’s very much a similar feel to Toronto or Montreal where, as soon as spring hits, golfers are out playing. So we picked a good market. Secondly, if you’re a golfer, golf equipment is a relatively discretionary purchase. It’s not buying a new car or going on a fancy cruise. You can buy a new driver for $300. If you’re an avid golfer and you love the game, buying new equipment is part of your hobby.
We’ve seen Canadian retailers unsuccessfully attempt to set up shop in the U.S., so what is it about the Golf Town brand that you think will resonate with U.S. consumers?
I think it’s our selection. The brands that we offer in our fashion department, are the best, like Hugo Boss, Lacoste, J. Lindeberg. So we’re very proud of our fashion business. Our store is very interactive. You can try any club in our $60,000 simulators before your buy it. Some stores have six of them. You can try all the putters, you can get custom fitted in our stores by specialists, you can take golf lessons. Each store has teaching professionals on staff to teach you how to play and improve your game. We have our own repair shops on the premises. In fact, some of our busiest days are in golf season on a rainy Saturday when golfers can’t get out on the golf course. They come to us to get their golf fix.
Is your merchandizing strategy going to change for the U.S. locations?
In the Boston stores, licensing is very big, so we’re going to have Red Sox, Patriots, Bruins and Celtics products–golf bags, golf balls, golf shirts. We don’t do a lot of that here, but in Boston they’re very avid fans, and so we’ll have a complete licensing department in our Boston stores.
What differences do you see between the Canadian and American consumer?
A golfer is very typical no matter where he or she lives. You can meet a golfer in Japan and that person might not speak English, but he plays with everything that I play with. So we have a common bond and that’s the game. The fashion might change a little bit in terms of it’s look and feel, and sizing, but that’s [true] in Canada as well; what we sell in Vancouver could be different than what we sell in Toronto. So we look at every market and we make sure the fashion is correct and we look at how we approach the market from a marketing standpoint. Marketing could be different in Boston… We fine-tune our marketing mix to the market.
And how will your marketing in Boston compare to marketing in Canada?
It’s a multimedia campaign in Boston. People get their news in many different ways. Here we’re still very traditional. We’re going to be on radio, newspaper, TV and on the internet–social media. We already have a Facebook page set up in Boston and all the different channels. It will be multi-channel. We used [agency] Top Drawer here out of Toronto. PR is handled by a Boston agency Schneider Associates and for media buying Elizabeth Brooks, freelance. The look and tone is the same as the Golf Town here–same brand, same feel, same look.
