Private Label: New Area For Sales

Tom Costello, the PGA Head Professional at The Jeremy Golf & Country Club in Park City, Utah and PGA-recognized Merchandiser of the Year, used private label shirts to help his golf store's bottom line.

By sourcing a profitable, quality golf shirt and then embroidering the shirts with his club's logo, he was able to merchandise shirts at nearly 60% margin. Key factors in executing this merchandising idea were launching the merchandising program around a key date. He chose the Fourth of July weekend and developed an in-store attractive red, white and blue product display. His club's members were very receptive to the promotion and eager to purchase and wear their club's logo shirts.

Tom didn't stop there; he sourced some shorts with good margins and promoted buy 2 shirts and get a free pair of shorts. The nice margins on the shorts and shirts minimized the promotional expense and created an excellent value proposition for the customer.

Merchandising Take-Away:

Be creative, name brands don't always offer a unique appeal and better margins are available developing your private label. You can start with one product, one style and expand to products and styles as demand grows.