The first Cost of Doing Business Survey for Golf Shops, which NSGA intends to publish biannually, also indicates that golf shops' operating margin per total equivalent employee is $80,991, and payroll as a percent of operating margin totals 40.5 percent.

Conducted for NSGA by Industry Insights Inc., a research firm based in Columbus, Ohio, the survey includes five measures of profitability, three measures of financial management and 14 measures of productivity, including data on inventory, space and personnel.

The complete Cost of Doing Business Survey also includes information on speciality sport shops and full-line sporting goods retailers with which golf shops can be compared. For example, golf shops are more profitable than specialty sport shops and full-line sporting goods stores, producing a net operating profit of 4.9 percent, compared with 4.1 percent for specialty shops and 2.4 percent for sporting goods stores.

Golf shops earn a return on total assets of 7.7 percent, while full-line stores earn 1.4 percent and specialty shops report a 9.5 percent return. Return on net worth for golf shops totals 10.9 percent, which again falls between full-line stores at 7.3 percent and specialty retailers at 19.9 percent.

NSGA also found that golf shops are the best at minimizing operating expenses, which average 33.1 percent of total revenues, compared with sporting goods stores (35.6 percent) and specialty sport shops (37.1 percent). In sales per total equivalent employee, golf shops also outperform the other categories -- $212,473 vs. $160,510 for specialty stores and $126,797 for sporting goods.

In addition to segmentation of sporting good stores and specialty shops by sales volume, comparison categories include single vs. multi-store operations, size of store and marketing mix. The study also provides comparisons to high-profit performing retailers. It was mailed to 2,500 retailers; more than 10 percent of responses were used in compiling results.

Source: Golf USA

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