By Alexandria Sage
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Callaway Golf Co. (ELY.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) will catch up with demand for its popular FT-i square driver by July, Chief Executive George Fellows said on Tuesday.
Callaway, which introduced the concept of the oversized club with its famous Big Bertha drivers, launched the FT-i earlier this year. Demand for the $499 club has outstripped supply, with consumers returning home from golf shops empty-handed.
Still, consumers have not balked at shelling out a premium price for what Callaway calls the world's straightest driver. Fellows, speaking at the Reuters Consumer and Retail Summit, said he had seen no impact on demand from the higher price point.
"The driver has been extremely successful, not just because of its promise but because it delivers," Fellows said. "For the first time, we're beginning to see some pricing movement in the market. Price compression for a while was a function of lack of innovation in the marketplace."
Since early last year, Callaway has been restructuring its business to bring products to market more quickly by streamlining its supply chain while reducing costs.
Fellows said lead times for some products had already been reduced by half, to 45 days, in order to reap more flexibility from the supply chain.
Much of Callaway's equipment is assembled at the company's Carlsbad, California, headquarters -- where the company is heavily investing in automating its processes -- but vendors and other processes like forging and casting are largely in China.
Aside from equipment, the Callaway brand has potential to be a lifestyle brand, but the company has no plans to bring its apparel division in-house, Fellows said. The company has two licensors -- one in California and one in Asia -- that make Callaway garments. Continued...
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