Here to Help – TaylorMade Golf’s Restart Plans for Retailers

Now that golf courses have opened up, we spoke to TaylorMade’s Managing Director for EMEAP, David Silvers about the safety steps, service solutions and trade support packages they have swiftly put in place as the golf industry starts to recover.

“Since COVID-19 hit our commitment has been to rally together, not only with our retail partners but also our suppliers and vendors, because the only way we’re going to get through this is by working together. Health and safety was and will remain our number one priority for our staff, customers and consumers. We moved very quickly to put in place several new procedures following the COVID-19 guidelines, both at our Basingstoke headquarters and when our experiential technicians are carrying out fitting events.

“In tandem, we are committed to re-igniting consumer demand to drive golfers to safely purchase TaylorMade products. As golfers return to stores you will see our advertising campaigns come back with a bang, whether that be across social or traditional media. We’ve also constructed support packages that will help our retail partners find their feet as their businesses start to open up.

The encouraging news is that we are seeing very strong pent up demand in other countries around the world that are 2-4 weeks ahead of the UK in the recovery phase. TaylorMade products are particularly hot across the globe right now and we are gearing up to be able to help generate and flawlessly service that surge in demand when it comes in the UK”

Health & Safety

“We took the first steps in re-opening our warehouse in April and by the 20th we were able to ship to countries who were open for business. To ensure the safety of our workforce and comply with social distancing, we put in place a number of new measures.”

These include:

Redesigned ‘zonal’ custom line and pick/pack system to ensure social distancing

Daily temperature and symptom checks for all employees

Full range of privately sourced PPE products, including masks for all operational staff

Disinfecting all products prior to packaging and extensive daily and weekly cleaning programme

Perspex barriers very recently installed to provide additional separation

Stickers on all boxes to assure customers that the product inside has been handled with extra care

Service Solutions

“Since April 20th we’ve been shipping 5 days per week to ensure we can offer reliable and consistent service even in these turbulent times. In most cases we have managed to maintain our usual 3-4 day lead times and we are in stock of most of the fast selling lines. We are now working on solutions to double the custom floor space so we can double current capacity whilst maintaining social distancing. We have also been operating a temporary home delivery service to facilitate deliveries to consumers on behalf of retail partners unable to receive product.

We now have over 80% of our staff back working full time however our head office is still closed so the vast majority are working from home. The team has functioned fantastically well remotely, and we are determined to maintain our communication and service levels throughout this recovery phase so our customers can maximise all opportunities.”

Support Packages for Retail Partners

“Our Area Sales Managers are now back working full-time and will be on hand to offer support for all our partners. I would encourage accounts to speak to their ASM’s to evaluate the support we can offer specific to their particular circumstances. We are also offering some fantastic promotions to help stimulate sell through.”

We are funding the following consumer promotions:

Free two ball sleeve with every dozen purchase of TP5/X, TP5/X PIX and Tour Response

3 for 2 launch offer on Soft Response dozens

4 for 3 personalised campaign on TP5/X has been extended to give customers another chance to stock up on balls for the season ahead

Your local ASM can discuss eligibility and how to get involved in these promotions.”

Experiential Support

“Custom fitting is now permitted in England in accordance with new rules and restrictions, so we acted with speed to amend our protocols and provide experiential events for those who are able to host them.

At the start of the year we invested heavily in experiential to vastly increase the number of days we offer across Europe. Unfortunately, we have lost time, but we are going to make up for that and work extremely hard to close the gap. Our entire experiential team will be on the road from June onwards, we will be rebooking days with retailers who had them cancelled and we are going to double up on some days where we can to make sure we can maximise this opportunity for
our retailers.

All fittings will be under strict health and safety guidelines to look after the safety of our staff, our retailers and the end consumer.”

Precautionary measures include:

Fittings being conducted on a one-on-one basis only

Technicians wearing protective gloves at all times

Hand sanitiser for consumers

A thorough product sanitisation before, during and after every fitting

We have also created an experiential PPE package that all our technicians will have with them throughout their sessions”.

Unauthorised Sellers

TaylorMade have made substantial progress in managing the task of removing the sale of TaylorMade products by unauthorised sellers, predominantly on sites such as eBay. Stuart Hubbard, Senior Sales Manager for the
UK has been overseeing this duty and mentioned while it isn’t an easy task, it will benefit all parties.

“Managing unauthorised sellers is always a tricky task for any brand, but we want to ensure that our valued authorised stockists are not losing out on business due to this issue. Since lockdown begun, we have closed over 250 listings of current TaylorMade product from eBay and removed multiple unapproved listings on social media that were in breach of our Distribution and Trading Policy. We remain fully committed to removing unauthorised eBay sellers of our products and protect our retail partners.” GR