Tips for retailers

Archery - an alternative stock option that works

The ancient sport of archery is proving to be very lucrative for some very modern retailers. It is a niche market with excellent prospects for the dealer who is willing to make a financial and resource commitment.

The reason is that archery appeals to young and old, male and female. It has formed part of youth training programmes — Boy Scouts can earn a badge with archery — and numerous schools in KwaZulu/Natal and Gauteng offer it as a sport. It is also a popular aspect of many company teambuilding exercises. Archery is a wonderful and all-inclusive family sport.

And interest in the sport seems to be contagious — as retailers in the Limpopo Province found when they arranged informal shoots to show friends and neighbours how much fun they can have with bow and arrow. Soon the word and interest spread and they now have regular weekly indoor club meetings and even have inter-town tournaments!

“Just watch what happens if you display a bow in your window — you’ll soon attract a potential customer, says Stan Gordon of the Cutlery Distributing Group (CDG). “If you can get one guy interested, he will have five friends that will soon want to join in. And they all have families who will become interested. Very few kids can resist the idea of shooting with bows and arrows.”

Since Barry Gordon started CDG’s dedicated archery division about a year ago, they have seen exceptional progress in the number of dealers who are doing well from archery sales. CDG is the exclusive SA agent for PSE (Precision Shooting Equipment), the largest bow manufacturer in the world. They offer a broad selection of merchandise, catering for kids from 10 to 11 up to bow hunting enthusiasts. They also stock the full range of Barnett Crossbows.

While there is undeniable local interest in archery, exact participation numbers are difficult to come by because most participants are not registered with one of the official bodies. South Africa is, for instance, a popular destination for international bow hunters, who consider the sport more echo-friendly than rifle hunting, and often buy equipment locally.

There are several archery clubs in all the major cities — at least six are registered in Johannesburg — but clubs are also rapidly starting in smaller towns. Sasolburg, for instance, has three registered archery clubs.

South Africa recently hosted the World 3D Bow Hunting Championship (shooting at three-dimensional animal targets made of a special self-healing ethafoam) at Hartbeestpoort Dam where 230 participants from several countries, including France, Italy, England, Austria and Switzerland, competed.

The growth of the magazine, SA Bow Hunter, is also a good indication of a rapidly growing archery market as more and more retailers advertise in there. There is even an indoor shooting league run by mail — because indoor shooting conditions are so perfectly controlled, competitors simply send their scores per mail.

Archery has such wide appeal because there are so many different aspects to the sport, explains (Stan) Gordon. The top of the range bow hunting is a very popular and fast growing sport amongst adult men, but schools usually compete against each other with recurve bows. After the entry level recurve bow, the next step is the compound bow. Crossbows are also good sellers.

Because the needs of archers are so diverse, CDG offers a dealer training programme to retailers who wish to carry stock. “If you want to become an archery dealer, you have to set aside one to three days of your time to learn what is required when servicing clients. Although CDG sets up the bows before supplying them to the dealer — it takes about 1 to 2 hours per bow — Gordon believes that it is important that the dealer gains hands-on knowledge about what is involved. “The ideal is that he should become proficient in setting up his own bows so that we only supply him with accessories.”

Apart from offering a minimum of three pre-arranged training programmes a year in different parts of the country, CDG will train dealers committed to stocking their brands archery on an individual basis.

CDG also carries a broad range of accessories and spare parts for their brands, so that there is always replacement parts available should a dealer require them. They also offer a service back-up system. In the past, the lack of replacement and spare parts or repair services discouraged many dealers from stocking archery equipment, because they had no back-up when customers returned bows. “The spare parts and accessories we carry was a major investment, but it has proven to be successful,“ says Gordon.

“We have had an excellent relationship of more than 27 years with Precision Shooting Equipment (PSE), the world’s biggest bow manufacturer, and are therefore in a position to support our dealers all the way with a full warranty.“