Is TaylorMade Still Struggling?

[PapaJohick]

How can the company that makes the #1 driver in golf be struggling?

 

It's new management cutting the fluff and unnecessary overhead. Money saved is money earned.

How can the company that makes the #1 driver in golf be struggling?

 

It's new management cutting the fluff and unnecessary overhead. Money saved is money earned.

 

TaylorMade had the #1 driver in golf for years and lost what is thought to be up to $100 million a year. It can happen. I can't say for sure it is happening now, but the speculation is there.

 

they no longer make the #1 driver in golf... callaway took that title the past two years (or at least the past year) in terms of sales/tour use

[Ri_Redneck]

In all honesty, the release cycles for golf equipment from the big players is an extremely bad practice. As some have mentioned, they are competing with themselves. They could do a new release every 3-4 years and be far better off. And then, when they DO release a new model, it can be an actual upgrade form the previous model instead of simply color or weight re-orientation.

 

BTW, can't wait to see what TMs Screw Face technology has to offer!!

 

BT

[pinestreetgolf]

And they always used to keep so much for warranty etc. looks to me like they needed to liquidate what they could

 

Why are you assuming they were perfect before and are wrong now? What if they held on way too long to them before and lost money, and have corrected it now?

[BostonWRX]

None of us have any idea is the real answer

[pinestreetgolf]

None of us have any idea is the real answer

 

We have a winner.

[jll62]

In all honesty, the release cycles for golf equipment from the big players is an extremely bad practice. As some have mentioned, they are competing with themselves. They could do a new release every 3-4 years and be far better off. And then, when they DO release a new model, it can be an actual upgrade form the previous model instead of simply color or weight re-orientation.

 

BTW, can't wait to see what TMs Screw Face technology has to offer!!

 

BT

 

In general, people on WRX are not like the rest of the market, so it's easy for our buying habits to overly influence how we perceive the larger market as a whole. Here's what matters: average golfers buy equipment and stick with it for a couple of years before entertaining the idea of buying something new. They're on a rolling 2-4 year upgrade cycle, so all of our consternation over yearly releases simply does not apply to them.

 

Note that this is all similar to the market for phone buyers (or car buyers, or appliance buyers, etc. Name your consumer good). Is Apple shooting themselves in the foot because they release updated iPhones every year? Should they switch to 3-4 year release cycles? Of course not. When someone is ready to buy a new iPhone, they upgrade to a model 2 or 3 gens later than what they have and it's a worthwhile upgrade. Sure, there is some segment of the market that upgrades to the latest phone each year and accepts incremental progress, but this is a vast minority of phone buyers.

 

The main problem with long release cycles for flagship product categories, like drivers, is you run the risk of being perceived as stale by the portion of the market ready to upgrade that year. No OEM can take that risk. If TaylorMade goes to a two-year cycle and Callaway introduces something intriguing midway through the TaylorMade model life span, this is a huge advantage for Callaway. The driver category has become an arms race, so people just need to deal with yearly updates. Incidentally, this will be a good test for Titleist. If they truly care about becoming a player in the market, as they've indicted with their new drivers, I think you'll see them move to yearly updates.

 

Finally, it's not the yearly (or sooner) release cadence that caused TaylorMade problems in the past. It was the way they stuffed product into their retail channels to make quarterly numbers look good that caused problems. They left their retail partners high and dry with old, outdated product. You'll notice that a company like Apple doesn't have this problem with the iPhone because they're usually wizards at managing their inventory. There's never a glut of older iPhones to sell when the new phones are released.

[1Mordrid1]

The impact of the PGA trade show for established brands has lost some of it's impact because of the way social media exposure now works. If I own or run an established golf company, I can get just as much exposure by sending my product to well known and followed Youtube reviewers at a fraction of the cost.

 

So it could just be a smart business decision to skip the PGA trade show.

 

As for Taylormade's bottom line, we just do not know. But PE firms are generally not in it for the long haul. And there is plenty of history showing PE firms running big name brands into the ground. That alone is enough to warrant some caution and concern for Taylormade's future.

[DFS PFD]

In all honesty, the release cycles for golf equipment from the big players is an extremely bad practice. As some have mentioned, they are competing with themselves. They could do a new release every 3-4 years and be far better off. And then, when they DO release a new model, it can be an actual upgrade form the previous model instead of simply color or weight re-orientation.

 

BTW, can't wait to see what TMs Screw Face technology has to offer!!

 

BT

 

In general, people on WRX are not like the rest of the market, so it's easy for our buying habits to overly influence how we perceive the larger market as a whole. Here's what matters: average golfers buy equipment and stick with it for a couple of years before entertaining the idea of buying something new. They're on a rolling 2-4 year upgrade cycle, so all of our consternation over yearly releases simply does not apply to them.

 

Note that this is all similar to the market for phone buyers (or car buyers, or appliance buyers, etc. Name your consumer good). Is Apple shooting themselves in the foot because they release updated iPhones every year? Should they switch to 3-4 year release cycles? Of course not. When someone is ready to buy a new iPhone, they upgrade to a model 2 or 3 gens later than what they have and it's a worthwhile upgrade. Sure, there is some segment of the market that upgrades to the latest phone each year and accepts incremental progress, but this is a vast minority of phone buyers.

 

The main problem with long release cycles for flagship product categories, like drivers, is you run the risk of being perceived as stale by the portion of the market ready to upgrade that year. No OEM can take that risk. If TaylorMade goes to a two-year cycle and Callaway introduces something intriguing midway through the TaylorMade model life span, this is a huge advantage for Callaway. The driver category has become an arms race, so people just need to deal with yearly updates. Incidentally, this will be a good test for Titleist. If they truly care about becoming a player in the market, as they've indicted with their new drivers, I think you'll see them move to yearly updates.

 

Finally, it's not the yearly (or sooner) release cadence that caused TaylorMade problems in the past. It was the way they stuffed product into their retail channels to make quarterly numbers look good that caused problems. They left their retail partners high and dry with old, outdated product. You'll notice that a company like Apple doesn't have this problem with the iPhone because they're usually wizards at managing their inventory. There's never a glut of older iPhones to sell when the new phones are released.

+1

If annual releases generate enough volume in sales, why lose all of that momentum by going to a long term release and letting your competitors have 3 releases and sales cycles for your 1?

[the bishop]

Don't know. But I'll relay the club gossip from yesterday. I Swanee this happened.

 

 

I walk in and our resident old folks ( whom I love dearly ) are huddled around the pro shop desk. Common sight. But. Topic was Taylor made. One claimed to have heard from a connection that they had 4 players on contract who hadn't been paid yet and that the They were going under. Soon.

 

 

Now I'm not at all putting stock. Into that. But. I wonder . The man saying it is a fine gentleman and not one to really make things up. I wonder how far down the telephone game list he is in that conversation? How much has it morphed ?

The way you punctuated that caused me to read it in Christopher Walken's voice.

[MarkFromTheUK]

They’ve been on a downward spiral ever since they stopped making the SLDR-C and distributing it through all good gas stations.

[bladehunter]

Don't know. But I'll relay the club gossip from yesterday. I Swanee this happened.

 

 

I walk in and our resident old folks ( whom I love dearly ) are huddled around the pro shop desk. Common sight. But. Topic was Taylor made. One claimed to have heard from a connection that they had 4 players on contract who hadn't been paid yet and that the They were going under. Soon.

 

 

Now I'm not at all putting stock. Into that. But. I wonder . The man saying it is a fine gentleman and not one to really make things up. I wonder how far down the telephone game list he is in that conversation? How much has it morphed ?

The way you punctuated that caused me to read it in Christopher Walken's voice.

 

Lol. Finally ! Someone gets me ! Does your mother sew ???

[GolfChannel]

In all honesty, the release cycles for golf equipment from the big players is an extremely bad practice. As some have mentioned, they are competing with themselves. They could do a new release every 3-4 years and be far better off. And then, when they DO release a new model, it can be an actual upgrade form the previous model instead of simply color or weight re-orientation.

 

BTW, can't wait to see what TMs Screw Face technology has to offer!!

 

BT

 

In general, people on WRX are not like the rest of the market, so it's easy for our buying habits to overly influence how we perceive the larger market as a whole. Here's what matters: average golfers buy equipment and stick with it for a couple of years before entertaining the idea of buying something new. They're on a rolling 2-4 year upgrade cycle, so all of our consternation over yearly releases simply does not apply to them.

 

Note that this is all similar to the market for phone buyers (or car buyers, or appliance buyers, etc. Name your consumer good). Is Apple shooting themselves in the foot because they release updated iPhones every year? Should they switch to 3-4 year release cycles? Of course not. When someone is ready to buy a new iPhone, they upgrade to a model 2 or 3 gens later than what they have and it's a worthwhile upgrade. Sure, there is some segment of the market that upgrades to the latest phone each year and accepts incremental progress, but this is a vast minority of phone buyers.

 

The main problem with long release cycles for flagship product categories, like drivers, is you run the risk of being perceived as stale by the portion of the market ready to upgrade that year. No OEM can take that risk. If TaylorMade goes to a two-year cycle and Callaway introduces something intriguing midway through the TaylorMade model life span, this is a huge advantage for Callaway. The driver category has become an arms race, so people just need to deal with yearly updates. Incidentally, this will be a good test for Titleist. If they truly care about becoming a player in the market, as they've indicted with their new drivers, I think you'll see them move to yearly updates.

 

Finally, it's not the yearly (or sooner) release cadence that caused TaylorMade problems in the past. It was the way they stuffed product into their retail channels to make quarterly numbers look good that caused problems. They left their retail partners high and dry with old, outdated product. You'll notice that a company like Apple doesn't have this problem with the iPhone because they're usually wizards at managing their inventory. There's never a glut of older iPhones to sell when the new phones are released.

 

Can we create an equipment cycle post and just lock this response at the top? Probably the best explanation I have seen on the forums for one of the most annoying questions constantly posed on these forums.

[cgasucks]

They’ve been on a downward spiral ever since they stopped making the SLDR-C and distributing it through all good gas stations.

 

I remember there were Jetspeed drivers sold at my local Toys R Us which cheapened their brand just like Wilson and MacGregor did back in the day. They really hit new lows at that time.

[Matt J]

One thing that has occurred to me is that having a VC firm buy one of the biggest equipment manufacturers should be good for the industry.

 

While Adidas owned TaylorMade they could afford to lose a lot of money every year. In essence, they as a market player contributed to fewer competitors and that number could have shrunk more if Adidas had stuck it out until other major manufacturers failed in addition to Nike.

 

While TM does not have to reveal their financials any longer, it is nice to know that they are not part of an extremely well-financed strategy to continue to drive competitors out of the market which they and Nike could have both committed to for an even longer duration. I think that Nike and TaylorMade basically ran each other into the ground and that we're lucky that Acushnet/Titleist, PING, Cobra, Callaway, Mizuno, Wilson Staff, and others weathered the storm. It's even more impressive that PXG was financed by Parsons although I've always wondered how committed he will be to the long term.

 

Even if the VC group gives up on TaylorMade and sells the name, at least the market appears healthier than a few years ago.

[bobcat]

SEEMS TM's DRIVER PRODUCT LINE HAS BEEN ON A DOWNWARD SPIRAL SINCE THEY STOPPED MAKING THE SLDR-C!

 

THE 'MODIFIED' STATEMENT ABOVE IS 'THE ACTUAL TRUTH'...NOTHING SINCE HAS FELT SO SOLID, BEEN SO FORGIVING, OR SO CONSISTENTLY LONG AND ACCURATE!...AND AS YOU CAN SEE FROM THE PICS BELOW, THE 2015 SLDR-C IS BOTH 'CLASSIC AND BEAUTIFUL', (UNLIKE TM'S LATEST OFFERINGS).. :yes:

 

 

 

 

HOT FACE! - (TOO HOT FOR THE USGA?).. :diablo:

NO NEED TO 'LOFT UP' - 9.5* IS THE WAY TO GO!. :good: I PREFER 'THIS SHAFT' IN MINE!.. :wub:

 

APPARENTLY, SOME CAN'T... :beach:

[the bishop]

They’ve been on a downward spiral ever since they stopped making the SLDR-C and distributing it through all good gas stations.

 

I remember there were Jetspeed drivers sold at my local Toys R Us which cheapened their brand just like Wilson and MacGregor did back in the day. They really hit new lows at that time.

Ah yes.....the Speed Police

Although the Sergio one looks more like Matt Kuchar to me

[mshills]

***SNIP***

It's like death and taxes.

[00steven]

They will be fine...

 

Twitter followers

 

Taylormade 499k

Titleist 380

Callaway 338k

Ping 200k

Srixon 80k Cleveland 108k = 188k

Cobra 144k

Bridgestone 88k

Mizuno 71k

Wilson 42k

 

TM markets well, has a good product, and has strong social media presence. These things are important the further on we go with the demographic that will be buying clubs.