Golf retailer’s got game
STRATEGIES In a mere 7 years, Stephen Bebis has turned Golf Town into Canada’s largest golf chain
orty- one years of age
is a bit late in life to
take up any sport,
never mind golf, which can drive even lifelong devotees to the breaking point and beyond. But it didn’t take Stephen Bebis long to find a way to combine his new love with his adulthood passion for entrepreneurship.
Five years after picking up his first golf club, he launched Golf Town in 1998. Now it’s Canada’s largest golf retailer, with 24 stores.
“ It was just about opening up a couple of stores,” says Bebis, now 53. “ I wanted a nice life and I wanted to play golf,” he adds, pausing for a moment to see if his bluff was credible. Then the confession: “ The vision was to open 20 to 25 stores and to be the category killer. It was to be number one.”
Golf Town is the fourth largest golf retailer in the world and in the third quarter, ended Sept. 30, earned $ 60.9 million, up 12 per cent over last year.
Golf Town is a big- box retailer
Fthat sells golf clubs, bags, clothing and other golf accessories. It also boasts an in- store golf school called the Academy at Golf Town, with driving ranges and CPGA instructors on staff.
Retail consultant John Williams, of the J. C. Williams Group, says the company has succeeded because Bebis understands that Golf Town is not in the “ deep discount game.” Instead, Bebis gives golf-savvy customers a one- stop shop for clothing, equipment and lessons, with knowledgeable staff. Not only is Golf Town competing against other retailers, it’s also competing against pro shops at golf clubs.
“ It’s as good as pro shops, but provides the value of a mass retailer,” he says.
Bebis says the idea for Golf Town came from former chief executive of Molson Canada Marshall Cohen. The Molson executive saw the success of the U.S. chain, Golf Galaxy, and thought Canada — with one of the largest golfing populations in the world — would be an ideal market for a similar concept. Cohen and Bebis had worked together when Bebis was with Molson- owned Aikenheads Home Improvement Warehouse. To start Golf Town, they each invested personal capital and joined with other investors, including Manulife Financial Corp., which bought an 80 per cent stake.
“ I had made enough money,” says Bebis, who made $ 740,000 last year. “ I really just enjoyed ( business) and I loved winning.”
Despite spending five years at University of Massachusetts, Connecticut- born and Bostonraised Bebis never earned a degree — something about changing majors and not correctly calculating the number of credits required to graduate.
Besides, he adds, winning isn’t about academic success, it’s about winning in the corporate boardroom.
Bebis held senior positions at U. S. retailers Sears and Grossman’s Lumber before becoming a buyer at Home Depot in 1984. Seven years later, he was vicepresident.
Shortly after, Molson decided to start Aikenheads in a bid to thwart Home Depot’s anticipated Canadian foray.
Bebis was contacted by a recruiter to head up Aikenheads. “ At 37 years old I could be CEO,” he recalls, thinking about the Canadian opportunity. “ I could define the business.” He accepted the offer in 1991. “ I had no offices, no phones, I lived in a hotel. I built the company to $1 billion in sales in three years and then Molson’s made a fortune ( when it sold Aikenheads in 1994).”
Ironically it was sold to Home Depot — the company it had been created to challenge, and Bebis’s former employer. Bebis stayed on as head of Canadian operations for two years, then stepped down because he didn’t want to lead a subsidiary of a larger company. He wanted his own company. Returning to the United States, Bebis accepted a stint as the chief executive of an American sports company operating under bankruptcy protection. Then he got the call from Cohen about Golf Town.
Although Bebis initially worried no one would show up on Golf Town’s opening day in 1998, his fear was misplaced. The store turned a profit from day one.
It became an income trust in 2004 because, Bebis says, the market was hot for the investment vehicle and the trust offered the best opportunity to go public. You would think that Bebis would be content that Golf Town has achieved its original goal of being a market leader in Canada. No such luck.
Because Golf Town has a noncompete clause with U. S.- based Golf Galaxy, expanding into the United States isn’t an option. So Bebis’s strategy is to build the corporate-promotion side of the business. He recently hired a vice- president in an effort to corner the market in a sector he says is large and fragmented.
Bebis is more than the cutthroat business executive he portrays at first. Golf Town is a strong supporter of the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation. Its annual golf tournament has raised nearly $ 300,000 in the three years it has run.
“ I decided to support the foundation because a large percentage of our customers, men between 40 and 55, are prime candidates for the disease,” he said in an earlier interview with the Toronto Star.
This past summer Bebis accepted the position of chair of the board and now gives time as well as money to the cause. Be it golf, business or charity, Bebis believes in only one approach: have a winning game.