Stewart Golf, which states that it is the only trolley manufacturer building all its products in the UK, exhibited on its own dedicated stand for the first time at the PGA Merchandise Show 2015 and says it was ‘almost overwhelmed’ by the response it got.
The company took out four of its staff to build and then man the 400 sq ft stand, but had to call in help from its Canada, US, Japan and Australia distributors to deal with the volume of visitors and enquiries.
Most attention was focused on the company’s revolutionary X9 Follow electric trolley, which follows you totally hands free wherever you go on the course, and the R1 Push, the lightweight and easy-to-fold three-wheeled trolley that is hand built at the company’s Gloucestershire headquarters.
The Golf Channel even picked out the X9 Follow as one of the highlights of the show and featured it in a live broadcast from the show, with the presenters demonstrating how the trolley was able to track a golfer’s movements even in the confined space of the channel’s on-site studio.
CEO Mark Stewart said: “The response we got to all our products – but especially the X9 Follow and R1 Push – was almost overwhelming. We were constantly busy from the start of each day to the end – people wanting demos and to talk about working with us.
“The X9 Follow being selected by The Golf Channel as one of their highlights of the show was a great endorsement too – for us to have been picked out of all the 1,000s of exhibitors and 10,000s of products was something we never expected.
Managing Director David Funnell said: “One thing we didn’t expect to hear so often was how more and more US golfers are walking rather than riding in buggies, but we heard it a lot – and we liked hearing it!.
“What was also incredibly encouraging was the volume of strong enquiries and firm orders that we received from countries that had not been on our export radar before but definitely are now – as a direct result of the show we now have brand new customers in countries as diverse as The Bahamas, Chile, Argentina, South Korea, Japan, Brazil and Mexico.
UK sales Manager Robert Hardie said: “The show also gave us a fantastic opportunity to meet some of our UK and European customers away from the pressured environment of the office or store or Pro Shop, and to talk with them about how best to work together going forward.
“Almost all of the agents that we have recently recruited to represent us were there also, and it was great to spend time with them and build their product knowledge still further”.
Stewart Golf www.stewartgolf.com
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