At the beginning of November I wrote about that Glenmuir and Sunderland of Scotland have started to expand their global sales operation and how they found a Finnish partner. Now Glenmuir is moving into new markets. Some of these markets are pretty obvious (Czech Republic, Slovakia). Others, like UAE, Bahrain (3 golf clubs), Oman (4 golf courses), Qatar (3 golf clubs), Saudi Arabia (12 golf clubs) are less obvious for me. I found Iceland an interesting choice (I will detail it below).
What did Glenmuir & Sunderland of Scotland find in Iceland?
Despite the location and the population size (cca. 321,000) of Iceland, we can find the relatively big and vivid golf life. According to KPMG‘s Golf Participation in Europe survey (2014), Iceland has one of the highest golf participation rate in Europe (5.1%): 16,371 registered golfers & 65 golf clubs. Nevertheless, Iceland’s purchasing power is not as good as Norway’s or Sweden’s. Their purchasing power is similar to Poland and Slovenia.
They will work with Golfskálinn in the Icelandic golf market.
What is the business potential of these Middle East markets?
Among the above mentioned Middle East countries, the UAE has the biggest potential, especially due to its relative importance as a golf destination. In IAGTO Golf Tourism Report 2013, UAE was the 13th most important golf destination, with the 9th biggest growth indicator value (not so far behind Ireland and Scotland).
I am also not sure whether Glenmuir and Sunderland of Scotland will be able to market their full portfolio of apparels, because it fits more to the European, North-American weather conditions. As these countries are relying more on tourism, it is more likely that the sales operation will be more B2B in nature (except UAE).
Falcon Golf Arabia FZ LL will be the Glenmuir distributor in these countries.