Will the stronger US dollar and the slowing down of the China economy result in lower 2016 prices?
Good question. We have not seen any price reductions on products coming out of China, but we have not seen too many price increases either. There is a lot less competition among factories in China since there are far fewer factories in operation. So, the demand for products and manufacturing space in the existing factories is at a premium. This allows them to maintain pricing and in some cases raise prices, even though the economic news would lead us to believe we might see some reduction. On our brands coming out of China, we did not see any significant price increases (but no decreases) and we did not raise prices on the majority of our product. There may be a few sku’s where there are modest increases, but not too many. We did see some increases from domestic suppliers, but generally prices are holding for heads, shafts, grips, tools and supplies. Since margins have been under pressure for some time now, it is very difficult to lower prices except when there is a significant decrease in the cost of an item, and there have not been many of those, if any. Again, some increases, but mostly prices will be the same as 2015.
Britt Lindsey