The second edition of the Nordic Golf Fair 2–4 October proved that last year’s success for the new Nordic concept wasn’t a stroke of luck. With high ambitions, a tighter fair and a lot of news, the show established itself as an important and efficient market place for the Nordic golf industry.
The Nordic Golf Fair produced a golf show with all the big and important golf brands in place. 220 different brands where exhibiting in just over 70 different stands, offering the visitors lots of products and trends to indulge in. Among this years new exhibitors you could find Lacoste, Nikon and Williams Sport.
The show is a very important opportunity for the golf trade to show the new products for the coming season. Some of the important and innovative news was the brand new Ping irons S55, ClickGears 4-wheel cart, the new Wilson driver, a new technical material from Adidas called Climachill, Footjoy´s new rain jacket called Dryjoys Tour XP and new golf balls from Nike named 20XI and RZN just to name a few. But there were a lot more.
Also new for this year, a lounge area was built by the stage and media centre for all the informal meetings. From the stage you could listen to live interviews / panel discussions from Golf.se with guests, r eporting on the latest trends and interesting new products. Edward Kitson, the Match Director of the Ryder Cup also held a presentation of the next year’s Ryder cup at Gleneagles.
Another new feature was that the Test & SimulatorCenter, “We know that the simulators are becoming an increasingly important product for golfers,” says Anders Westerlund, the man behind The Nordic Golf Fair. Partly this is because more clubs are being sold through custom fitting, so a hit analysis is necessary, and partly because a simulator makes it possible to conduct training and testing of clubs all year round.
Three happy Merchandisers of the Year
In connection to the After Golf mingle on Wednesday evening, the tradition to award the year’s best golf shops at the Nordic Golf Fair continued. This year Denmark’s best store was also awarded. The prize recognises those shops that perform especially well, and that set an example for the rest of the golf trade.
Golf International in Stockholm won the Off Course category, and in the On Course category Tylösands Golf shop in Halmstad was the jury’s choice for the award.
The Danish merchandiser award strengthened the Nordic Golf Fair’s establishment on the Danish market. The winner Ian Appleyard at Silkeborg Golf Club was chosen among five nominees through a vote among the Golf.dk readers.
Strong finish
The visitor number was roughly the same as last year, with one important difference, that more people visited during the third and last day. A result of the cooperation with Golfstore, having its show right after the Nordic Golf Fair.
“It’s something we are very happy about, that we managed to have a relatively large number of visitors also on the last day,” says Anders Westerlund, project manager of the Nordic Golf Fair.
All in all, 1 400 visitors came to look at the news, get updated about next years trends and make business over the three days. The fair is still dominated by Swedish visitors, who stand for 70 percent, and then Danish, Norwegian and Finnish visitors. But there were also visitors from Germany, Great Britain, Holland and USA.
Nordic Golf Fair 2013 www.thenordicgolffair.com