Srixon buys Cleveland brand

Surprise deal sees sees strength of balls and wedges under one umbrella

Golfmagic correspondent
Wed, 31 Oct 2007
Srixon buys Cleveland brand

Cleveland sold
Vijay Singh wins the Arnold Palmer invitational with Cleveland clubs in March

Cleveland Golf, the brand endorsed by Vijay Singh and David Howell and many other top Tour pros, has been bought by SRI Sports Ltd., owners of Srixon, for a reported US$132.5million.

Quicksilver Inc. which bought Cleveland from Rossignol in 2005, announced that the sale is part of a company wide move to reduce their presence in the hardgoods business.

The move by SRI Sports, a Japanese company and parent of the Srixon brand of clubs and balls endorsed by Jim Furyk and Henrik Stenson among others, has come as a surprise to many golf business-watchers but was welcomed by Greg Hopkins, President of Cleveland Golf.

"We are excited by the many positive aspects of this deal, including the combination of a great brand in golf with a new organisation that is completely and solely devoted to the sport. We believe that this singular focus will benefit the entire Cleveland organisation in a number of ways."

Commented Ryochi Sawada, chairman of SRI Sports: "Cleveland has a clear position of dominance in the important wedge market and a fast-growing presence in drivers and irons. We believe that this business will prove highly complementary to our own. We are looking forward to demonstrating Cleveland’s full potential to the market and believe that the business can benefit greatly from our stewardship."

Cleveland sold

Srixon's Z-UR golf balls has made in-roads into the US, European and Asian markets among both pros and amateurs and should complement the success of Cleveland HiBore woods and CG irons and wedges.

Winners on Tour for Cleveland this year include Singh, Boo Weekley and left-hander Steve Flesch.

The merger of the two brands under one parent company is nothing new in golf. For example Acushnet already owns the Titleist, Cobra, Pinnacle and FootJoy brands, while Callaway has both Ben Hogan and Top-Flite under its global wing.