Jon Camp, a British golf executive who ran Ashworth’s European operations from 2000 until the beginning of 2009, has been named managing director of Sunice Europe. He had recently worked as a consultant to Fletcher Leisure, the Canadian company that took back full control of the Sunice brand gradually after the acquisition of Ashworth by TaylorMade-Adidas Golf in November 2008.
Fletcher, a family-owned company that has been in the golf market for 30 years, distributing brands such as FootJoy, Ashworth and Adams Golf in its domestic market, bought the Sunice brand of golf and ski clothing in 1995. It does not distribute FootJoy or Ashworth in Canada anymore, encouraging the family to invest in Sunice.
Ashworth’s offices in the U.S. and the U.K. handled the distribution of Sunice golfwear in the U.S. and Europe for many years, and Allan Fletcher himself ran Ashworth’s global operations for a while, prior to their sale to TMAG, but there are no links with Ashworth anymore. In July 2009, Fletcher proceeded to set up its own Sunice USA subsidiary in New York, which is now covering the U.S. market with a network of 30 sales reps. TMAG stopped selling Sunice golf clothing in Europe last April, and Fletcher set up Sunice Europe two months ago, just before the Golf Europe show in Munich, where the brand had its own stand.
Just before the event, Fletcher managed to convince distributors in 23 European countries to represent the Sunice golf line, exceeding initial expectations. The territories covered include Scandinavia, Iceland, Estonia, the Ukraine, Bulgaria and Turkey. Only about one-third of the committed European distributors had been involved with the brand before. They were all apparently persuaded in different degrees about its numerous competitive advantages.
Fletcher, which uses designers in Canada, the U.S. and Italy to develop the line, boasts that its product range covers more price points than any other golfwear company, including many garments made with Gore-Tex membranes. A specific European catalog has been put together for the spring/summer 2011 season, and the company is going to offer point-of-sale display material to back up the line in European stores.
Furthermore, Fletcher has set up a dedicated distribution center in the U.K. with embroidering facilities of club logos, allowing Sunice to offer customized garments for the first time in Europe. Embroidered garments represent 60 percent of Fletcher’s sales of Sunice golf clothing in Canada, and 40 percent in the U.S.
The chairman and chief executive of the company, Allan Fletcher, indicates that Sunice plans to engage in sponsorships in Europe. He claims that Sunice counts the highest number of U.S. players on the PGA Tour wearing its clothes. Known for its women-specific jackets with Gore-Tex, Sunice has been sponsoring the American women’s team in the Solheim Cup for the past four years. It will be the official supplier of the Canadian Golf Open in 2011
Allan Fletcher is the son of Pat Fletcher, who was the major Canadian golf champion in his time. Allan is now 67 years old. He is transferring responsibilities gradually to his son Mark, but is still very involved in the management of his company.
Sunice was expected to generate sales of more than US$35 million this year. Three-fourths of that is accounted for by its golf clothing. The balance is skiwear, and Fletcher was quickly sold out of its fall/winter 2010-11 line following its sponsorship of the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver last February, where it clad 2,500 participants, officials and volunteers. Sunice had also an exclusive Olympic license for Canadian retail stores.
Sunice skiwear is currently sold only in North America. For the moment, there are no plans to offer it in Europe.
