Although he’s always a great man to do a deal, Paul Coleman has added fuel to the current retail price war by announcing a massive 50% off sale – starting on Thursday morning. The popular retailer who is based in Lee Valley has been running his shop for over 7 years and has spent that time looking for innovative ways to drive customers to his shop and to give them the best possible deals. From try before you buy, bespoke hampers, customised footwear, a custom fitting solution in association with Drive Golf Performance, Paul has pioneered several new ideas. This year he added payment plans, a price match promise and custom filled Christmas hampers to that list.
And to top that he’s just announced a huge sale offer with 50% off everything. This come on the back of a very competitive landscape in Cork. In 2013 Halpenny Golf arrived in Cork to challenge the existing retailers and last month Dublin retailer McGuirks opened up their first Cork store. Golf retailing is competitive; McGuirks have plenty of opening offers, Halpenny are offering their “staff prices” promotion regularly and American Golf recently ran a successful 25% off offer at the end of November. So after a few weeks of poor weather, Paul decided to put the pressure back on his larger competitors; “Business since November has been poor for a number of reasons, the weather has been a huge factor and everybody has reacted to the arrival of another large retail chain. For a smaller retailer with a shop that is off the beaten track the discount has make a statement to get people to travel.”
Paul Coleman
The 50% off sale is sure to drive lots of interest towards Lee Valley over the coming days, with plenty of stock and a large number of brands in store, Paul is expecting a busy few days: “Currently in stock we have Oakley eyewear, Sunice, Footjoy, Rohnisch, Taylormade, Ping, Titleist and Wilson among other brands. It’s been a good year with lots of golfers spending money on big tickets items, sets of clubs, electric trolleys and lithium batteries are all selling very well this year.”
For the past year Paul has been using the tag line “support local” in all of his advertising and he feels that it sums-up what his enterprise is all about as he explained: “The support local hash-tag is huge in food, art and craft circles but general retail hasn’t had the same reaction. I’d equate us to the corner shop. We keep massive hours (almost 100 per week in the summer), we oblige 99% of requests and favours when we can, but people don’t always view us as a business, more of a service that’s there whether they support us or not. And like the corner shop if people keep bypassing us for the perceived convenience and value of the high street our business becomes unsustainable.”
“If you look at the added service we provide, we want to build long term repeat business so we try to be more personal. We carry all the major brands and we will seldom be beaten on price. We offer payment plans on the bigger items and free delivery within the locality. Most importantly we love having a coffee and a chat!” In the past seven years Paul has built up an impressive customer base with a large number of repeat customers. Naturally he’s quick to add his thanks to those customers: “If it wasn’t for the support of committee, members, my friends, East Cork people [Paul is a long-time member of East Cork GC], I would have to question the long term viability of the business.”
The sale in Lee Valley gets underway on Thursday morning at 8am, so get out early to grab a bargain just in time for Christmas!
Cork Golf News 