December CPI for Sporting Goods Remains Negative, Year Negative Overall
|
After declining 5.9% in November, The CPI for Sporting Goods fell again in December 4.4%. The CPI fell all twelve months of 2011.
The CPI for All Items continued positive in December with a 3.0% increase. This followed a 3.4% rise in November and a 3.5% rise in October.
For 2011, The Sporting Goods CPI averaged a 4.7% decrease, following a 3.0% decrease in 2010. This is the second year in a row that Sporting Goods CPI has shown a decrease. It increased 2.1% in 2009.
In the past five years (2011 versus 2006), the Sporting Goods CPI average has declined 1.2% in the face of a 3.0% rise in the CPI for All Items.
|
Registration Now Available for the 2012 NSGA Management Conference & Team Dealer Summit
|
Register today for the 2012 NSGA Management Conference & Team Dealer Summit, to be held May 6-9, 2012 at The Westin La Cantera Resort in San Antonio, Texas. The event will feature outstanding speakers, numerous opportunities to connect with your fellow industry executives, and multiple opportunities to recognize the leaders of the sporting goods industry.
And as an added bonus, if you register by February 17, you will receive a $150 Westin La Cantera gift certificate that can be used to enhance your event experience. Please remember that the hotel block filled last year, so don't be blocked out! Register and reserve your room today! Visit the event's website at www.nsga.org/conference to learn more and register online.
For further information or questions, please email conference@nsga.org, or call (800) 815-5422, ext. 127.
|
December Weather: A Christmas Present for the Golf Industry
|
 December 2011 is one for the record books as a large swath of the country experienced unseasonably warm temps and a dearth of that white fluffy stuff resulting in an increase in Golf Playable Hours (GPH) up 78% vs. last December at the national level! This cut the November Year-to-Date (YTD) deficit of GPH in half and resulted in a year-end GPH deficit of -1% vs a year ago.
Regional breadth for the YTD period improved slightly but still finished the year with negative breadth at 1:2.1 with 10 regions having favorable weather offset by 21 regions with unfavorable weather (14 in the neutral zone of +/- 2%) The GPH results by day-of-week finished with weekdays showing more weather unfavorability (-2%) than weekends which had slight favorability (+1%). This favorability should have provided a slight boost to rounds and revenue results due to higher utilization and rates on weekends.
Looking back on November rounds demand as reported by Golf Datatech/NGF to calculate the facility Utilization Rate (UR), we lost 1 point of utilization (51.5) at the national level (comprised of a 2% increase in Played Rounds against a GPH increase of +4%. Based on November's UR, the YTD period Utilization remained at 52% (comprised of a 4% decrease in Played Rounds against a 2% decline in Capacity Rounds) which is half a point lower than the 2010 year-end value.
For more specific information on how Pellucid's Weather Impact capabilities answer key business performance questions, including a sample report and pricing, contact Jim Koppenhaver at jimk@pellucidcorp.com.
|
Social Media and the Sports Fan
|
One of the most interesting findings from a nationwide survey of 3,000 sports fans age 13+ conducted in the fall of 2011 was that the majority of fans for a given sport who use social media do not use these social media tools to follow their sport. The study was sponsored by SBRnet, Princeton, NJ, an online sports business database that aggregates a wide range of sports market research and trade publications.
NFL and NBA fans who use Twitter are most likely to follow that sport on Twitter. While NFL also ranks first among Facebook users, Minor League Hockey is next most popular.
Conversely, Minor League Baseball and IndyCar are at the lowest end of the scale for both Facebook and Twitter.
Study results also suggest that social media users who follow their sport are much more active as fans...they attend more often, they are more likely to purchase logo apparel and footwear, and they are more likely to have participated in the sport at some point in their life, suggesting that social media offers challenging opportunities for sporting goods companies.
For more information about the complete report, contact richard@sbrnet.com or call 609-896-1996.
|
Canadian Sporting Goods Sales Rise Slightly
|
Retail store sales of sporting goods in Canada were up slightly in the third quarter of 2011 with a 1.0% increase according to Statistics Canada. This follows a 2.7% increase in the second quarter of 2011 which followed a 0.1% drop in the first quarter. Sales for Q3 were $1,236.3 million (Canadian) versus $1,223.6 in the same quarter of 2010.
For 2010, retail store sales of sporting goods in Canada were $4,303.3 million (Canadian) versus $4,468.7 million in 2009, a decrease of 3.7%. For 2008, Canadian retail store sales of sporting goods had fallen 1.3%.
Non-retail store sales of sporting goods in 2009 fell to $97.9 million (Canadian) from $118.4 million the previous year, a 17.3% decrease. The data has not yet been reported for 2010.
Specialized clothing for specific sports is included in the total for sporting goods. Non-store retailers (infomercials, direct-response, catalog, etc.) are not included in quarterly data.
|
November Sales Strong; Snowless December Does Not Bode Well
|
SnowSports Industries America (SIA) and The Leisure Trends Group have released the next round of 2011/2012 data covering August through November snow sports sales. The snow sports market had plenty of traffic in November and sales reflected the moreoptimistic mood of the U.S. consumers overall.
Snow sports consumers were not yet affected by the lack of snow that is dampening spirits and bottom lines across the industry in December and early January. Sales between August and November 2011 were up 5% overall in units and 10% overall in dollars sold, reaching $1.2 billion. Specialty shop inventories, while leaner than ever at the end of the 2010/2011 season, are slightly more stocked than they were at the end of November last season. Sell-through is also slightly higher, indicating that inventories are aligned well with market demand through November.
Early Trends to Watch this Season:
- Reverse and mixed camber ski sales have doubled from 28,000 units sold through November last season to more than 55,000 sold through November 2011
- Insulated parka sales are up 18% in units sold as non-participants head to chain stores and online to buy snow sports apparel as casual wear. Internet sales of insulated parkas are up 33% in units and dollars sold through November.
- AT/Randonee boot sales are up 22% in units and dollar and skins sales are up 21% in units sold and 25% in dollars sold.
- Winter boot sales are strong again this season with sales reaching more than $36 million through November, $6 million more than sales through November last season.
- More than 1.2 million helmets sold last season and this season is off to a strong start with more than 300,000 units sold as of November 30, a 15% increase in units sold.
December data is currently being collected and tabulated; however, reports from the field indicate that the lack of snow nationally has had a significantly negative impact on retail sales and reorders from retail to suppliers, in December.
The market data presented in this report comes from the Snow Sports RetailTRAK™ produced for SIA by the Leisure Trends Group. The Leisure Trends Group gathers RetailTRAK™ data directly from the Point of Sale systems of more than 1,200 snow sports retailers. For more information about snow sports retail sales information and other SIA Research products contact Kelly Davis, SIA's Director of Research at KDavis@snowsports.org.
|
|
