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July 11, 2008
Ransomes Jacobsen Leads in Golfıs New Frontier
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The Zhailav Resort in Kazakhstan is one of many golf courses that are being planned or have opened in eastern and central Europe. |
Playing golf in the Czech Republic, Russia or any other Eastern Bloc country 10 or 15 years ago would have been virtually unthinkable. Golf was an unknown sport and, consequently, there were few, if any, golf courses to be found.
Today, golf is becoming increasingly popular in this part of the world. As these countries grow their economies and attract foreign investment, developers are finding a niche for high-end golf courses designed by such PGA legends as Jack Nicklaus and Greg Norman.
Long-term relationships pay off
Ransomes Jacobsen and E-Z-GO are there, too. In fact, these two Textron businesses have been in eastern and central Europe for 15 years, building relationships with distributors and golf course operators.
“It’s really paid off for us in the past couple of years,” says Scott Forrest, the international business development manager, who has spent the past 10 years working in the former Eastern Bloc countries for Ransomes Jacobsen. “We’re so well known there, so they respect us and trust what we have to say.”
The Czech Republic, for example, has the fastest-growing market in this region with about 65 golf courses either built or in development. Of this number, Forrest estimates the two Textron businesses have about 70 percent of the golf business there.
Such success has not come quickly or easily, says Nick Brown, the export business development manager for Ransomes Jacobsen. With its years of experience in the industry, people like Forrest and Brown have worked hard to educate golf course developers, equipment distributors and golf course superintendents about turf maintenance equipment and the golf industry.
Cross-marketing E-Z-GO products
Having Ransomes Jacobsen there also helps to market E-Z-GO golf cars. “A lot of times, customers see us as a one-stop shop,” says Forrest. “We can provide golf cars, utility vehicles as well as the turf maintenance equipment.”
Helping this relationship is the fact that Ransomes Jacobsen is the E-Z-GO distributor for Europe, the Middle East and Africa with a network of distribution companies in each territory.
As developers create high-end courses, Brown has been most recently promoting E-Z-GO’s RXV golf car. “We say if you’re going to invest millions into the construction of this course, you should have the RXV,” Brown adds. “You’re creating an optimum course, you need the optimum golf car.”
Distributors represent important link
One of the keys to success in these markets, say Forrest and Brown, is cultivating distributors who can set up dealers who will work with customers and provide them with the service and parts that they need, when they need them.
ITTEC, the Czech distributor for both Ransomes Jacobsen and E-Z-GO, is a model of distribution in an Eastern Bloc country. “We’ve benefited from this distributor who has built a small company into one that is a very strong service- and sales-oriented company,” Forrest says.
As the golf industry there blooms, it’s more important than ever to be there for customers. For example, Ransomes Jacobsen recently sponsored an exchange visit for six greenskeepers from CZ Golf, a golf course operator and management company based in Prague. The greenskeepers spent a week at The Tytherington Cub in Cheshire, UK, where they studied the best practices of golf course management.
Having people like Brown, who is based in Slovokia, located in the region allows him to keep a close eye on new developments. “We’ll go in before the planning application is filed and we hope to become more of a consultant in the process and then work with them to see it all the way through,” he says.
He estimates that Ransomes Jacobsen is getting contracts for more than half of the golf courses that are either planned or built in eastern and central Europe.
The golf courses currently in development are high-end and cater to business people and their clients. In Russia, however, there is a push to create public golf courses and cultivate younger people to take up the sport. Forrest sees this as the next big market.
“Within 10 or 15 years, the growth of golf in Russia is going to be phenomenal,” he says. “They’ve got the structure in place, the money and the vision.”
And Ransomes Jacobsen is there, too, from St. Petersburg to Siberia, working with the people who are making this happen. Forrest says Ransomes Jacobsen is in it for the long haul. “It’s a hard and slow process, but it’s very rewarding.”
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