It appears that the recession in the Far East is hitting golf clothing manufacturers, most notably the makers of the Pringle range who have been forced to shed some 720 jobs in their two factories in Scotland.
Scottish-based textile company Dawson International have decided to close two manufacturing plants (at Galashiels and Berwick) and attribute the closures to a combination of factors: A strong sterling which has pushed their prices up by as much as 30 per cent, the financial crisis in Asia and a fashion trend away from lambswool. The Berwick plant is dedicated purely to the manufacture of the Pringle of Scotland golf line, one of the company's biggest earners in recent years but - a bit like the on-course fortunes of its public face, Nick Faldo - struggling to regain its position at the head of the field.
Indeed, the company's shares are currently not much more than a fifth of what they were five years ago, and company chairman Derek Findlay told the recent a.g.m. that they faced "a long and arduous" route to get back on course.
The scale of the job losses in Scotland is a direct result of the fall in advance orders, but even the high-profile Tiger Woods, it seems, hasn't enticed golf customers to imitate him by wearing his Nike signature shoes in sufficient numbers. In fact, the owner of four Nevada Bob stores in Oregon claimed the shoes, retailing for £150, were "a total disaster."
Woods was paid more than £25 million for a five-year deal with the sports manufacturers and, despite sales in the States alone of Woods-related garments and merchandise of £130 million for the past year, mainly among the young, one American store owner is reported as saying, "they're so gaudy. It's easy to sell to a 13-year-old, but the 40-year-old lawyer is turned off. The design is really radical and the shoes really look good on one guy only - Tiger Woods."
American sports store owners blamed the relatively high price of the range of apparel, one retailer calling it a "lot of money for a little swoosh." All in all, it seems to be a tough retailing world out there.
