Sports Marketing Surveys Ltd’s May Retail Audit report shows that Acushnet has a commanding 44.8% unit share of the UK golf ball market, more than the combined total of the next 7 companies. This position is even stronger when looking at ‘share by value’ with Acushnet holding 54.3% of sales revenue.
The encouraging aspect for Acushnet is that it is not just the all-conquering Titleist Pro V1 that is contributing to the growing market share. The SMS survey reveals that 6 of the top 7 selling golf balls, in terms of volume share, and the entire top 7 in terms of revenue, are all from the Acushnet stable.
Top 7 golf ball models by volume May ’03
1. Titleist ProV1 11.6%
2. Pinnacle Gold 10%
3. Titleist NXT Tour ;4.8%
4. Titleist NXT 3.7%
5. Other competitor model 3%
6. Titleist PTS SoLo 2.7%
7. Titleist Pro V1x 2.7%
Top 7 golf ball models by revenue May ’03
1. Titleist Pro V1 22.5%
2. Titleist NXT Tour ;6.1%
3. Titleist Pro V1x 5.2%
4. Pinnacle Gold 5.1%
5. Titleist NXT 4.8%
6. Titleist PTS SoLo ;2.9%
7. Titleist PTS Performance 2.4%
As John Peal, Acushnet’s European marketing director comments, “We are naturally delighted with these results as it proves that we are achieving our goal of producing a full line of golf balls to suit the needs of a wide variety of golfers and backing that up with first class service to our retail partners. It is also especially gratifying that Pinnacle is now clearly established as the #2 golf ball brand in the UK, having displaced the previous closest rival to Titleist earlier in the year.”
Acushnet www.acushnetgolf.com