Callaway Golf Company Q1 2009 Earnings Call Transcript

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2009-05-01 11:42:14.0

Tags: Call Transcript, Earnings, Promotion, Benefits, Sales Strategy, Sales Force Management, Human Resources, Sales, Seeking Alpha, Callaway Golf Co.

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Tom Shaw - Stifel Nicolaus.

Tom Shaw - Stifel Nicolaus

First question for George, can you talk a little bit about the success of the new two for one or buy one, get one for $1 promotion? I guess I'm a little surprised that some of your major competitors haven't really followed suit in the first two or three weeks this promotion has been out there.

George Fellows

Well, very specifically the response has been extraordinarily strong. In the first week of the promotion, for example, we achieved a lift in the normal movement during that period of time of anywhere from 200% to 400% and that has pretty much sustained itself through a good portion of the program to date. I would fully expect that our competition will indeed - and, in fact, some already have - come out with comparable programs of their own, but so far they haven't really impacted the effect that we've had in the marketplace.

In addition to that, we've had particularly good success in all of our demo days throughout the areas where the golf season has opened and we're seeing very dramatic sales increases there as well. And in fact in many instances where multiple manufacturers are present at these demo days, we're fairly well dominating the sell through at that point.

So I think the lesson to be learned is that with the economic conditions being what they are, there are still golfers out there; they're willing to spend money on new product. They perhaps need a somewhat stronger incentive in these conditions than they might normally need, but the fact is that the golf industry is, while somewhat hurt by this economic downturn, it is certainly positioned for a recovery when the economy recovers.

Tom Shaw - Stifel Nicolaus

Second question for Brad, if you look at the GMI initiative, it looks like a $7 million benefit which, if I'm looking at my notes right, it seems maybe a little quicker than the annual benefits if you start looking at it throughout the year. Is there some upside to that relative to - obviously you gave the overall gross margin guidance of $0.40 to $0.42, but what do you see there? And then kind of a tagalong to that on the gross margins, could you kind of order the magnitude of the pressure, the four factors you mentioned, and are there any opportunities there, such as higher material costs, as the year progresses?

 

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