The golf industry is seeing a surge in demand during the pandemic, with PGA Tour Superstore reporting a 55% increase in overall year-to-date sales compared with 2019.
Demand is so high that suppliers are struggling to keep up, Dick Sullivan, CEO of PGA Tour Superstore, said on CNBC’s “The Exchange” on Friday.
“We are hearing that factories are purchasing additional factories overseas to keep up with this incredible demand,” Sullivan said.
“The demand has been unprecedented,” he said — and unexpected.
“There’s no factories anywhere around the world that predicted this kind of growth,” Sullivan said.
“In a lot of cases the assumptions were that once we were vaccinated, once people were able to go back inside, that less people would be outside, and we’re not seeing that,” he said. “We’re continuing to see people want to be outside.”
PGA Tour Superstore is also facing the same supply-chain challenges as others in the retail industry, with congested ports, container shortages and Covid-19 outbreaks slowing shipments.
“We’re not immune to what we are seeing everywhere across all industries, but we are working with all our suppliers, and, you know, what may have been just a few days of lead time unfortunately is turning into weeks,” Sullivan said. “But I was in California this week working with suppliers to see how we can accelerate the lead times to make sure we satisfy this demand.”