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Titleist balls the only growth area at Acushnet as FootJoy falls 7.5%
Acushnet's third-quarter sales slipped 1.3% to $649.2 million. Pro V1 lifted ball sales while clubs, gear and FootJoy all fell, and a new Pro V1 is due in 2027.
Golf balls were the only part of Acushnet’s business to sell more in the third quarter than a year earlier. Acushnet reported on Wednesday that Titleist ball sales rose 3.3% to $209.1 million in the three months to September, while Titleist clubs fell 2.0% to $220.7 million, golf gear 9.5% to $55.4 million and FootJoy 7.5% to $126.2 million. Total net sales were $649.2 million, down 1.3%.
Chief executive David Maher said the growth came from the Pro V1, which sold more in every region. A new model is due in 2027, and Maher told analysts the fourth quarter would be “a period of transition as we convert Pro V1 production to next-generation product”. We have compared the current Pro V1 with the Pro V1x and Pro V1x Left Dash.
Acushnet put the fall in club sales down to timing: the GTS metal woods went on sale early in the second quarter, so their launch sales were booked then. Titleist equipment sales are up about 10% so far this year. New irons and putters are due in 2027, though finance chief Sean Sullivan expects slower club growth, as is usual for the company in odd-numbered years.
Sullivan blamed part of the fall at FootJoy and in gear on a temporary disruption to custom embroidery.
The company narrowed its forecast for full-year adjusted EBITDA to $455–470 million, from $450–470 million, and kept its sales forecast at $2.65–2.675 billion. The EBITDA figure includes about $30 million of net refunds of tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Without them the range would be $425–440 million. Sullivan expects tariff costs in 2027 to be roughly flat on this year.
Maher said weather cut playable hours by 6–8% in the summer months. Rounds in the US, he said, are tracking at or slightly above last year’s. He put the average US public green fee at $47, up 4% on last year and 29% on six or seven years ago.
The next quarterly dividend, 25.5 cents a share, will be paid on 18 December.
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