The Golfalot Price Index in the UK has decreased this month by -0.47%, but this was entirely due to a -4.4% fall in the Trolleys sector as budget models from Go and Skymax came back into the Index and some Powakaddy lines were discounted to make way for a new model later this year.
Excluding Trolleys from the Index then it actually rose by just under 0.3% as most categories rose by just under 1%. The exception to this was Drivers, Irons and Balls which all fell by between 0.6% and 0.9%, but overall it was a fairly healthy picture even though the word on the golfing street is that the retail climate is getting tougher.
Conversely the USA Golfalot Price Index did not change from last month, but this hid several large variations that cancelled each other out, as 5 categories rose and 5 fell.
On the up this month were Trolleys (+3.5%), Wedges (+2.9%), Fairway Woods (+1.4%), Balls (+1.6%) and Putters (+1.5%). Trolleys increased as there was a $340 rise in one of the most expensive trolleys on the market, the Dynasteer Remote Controlled Golf Kaddy and Wedges went up thanks to a few cheaper clubs dropping out and a large increase in price on the Nickent GenEx ARC wedge.
The 5 categories that fell this month were Drivers (-3.1%), Utility Clubs (-2.7%), Irons (-0.8%), Shoes (-0.8%) and finally Bags (-0.7%). The fall in the Driver section was helped by the large fall in prices of the Adams Insight XTD drivers and Utility Clubs fell due to the fall in price of the Nike Sumo hybrids and a large fall from the Sonartec Transition utility club.
Overall the credit crunch on both sides of the pond seems to be affecting the golf industry less than other sectors and hopefully now the season is in full swing, this trend will be continued.
For more detailed information view the Golfalot Price Index graphs for the UK & USA online at www.golfalot.com/priceindex
Golfalot www.Golfalot.com