Merchandise discounting
Wolves supporters are enjoying unprecedented discounts in the megastore and online.
Weekly emails announce various deals across the full range of branded leisurewear, it’s something that has caused more than one or two raised eyebrows amongst supporters; is it an indication that the club has its forward ordering and stock levels horribly wrong? Apparently not…
When Wolves signed the deal with Castore in May 2021 Vinny Clark, Commercial Operations General Manager, described it as:
‘’a truly ground-breaking deal in Premier League football, which challenges the established order of things, and we are delighted to have found a progressive and disruptive partner in Castore to embark on this journey with us,”
“From our first meeting with Castore, it became evident that we shared a passion to shake things up. We wanted to re-set how things worked from a kit partnership viewpoint to find a win-win-win scenario for our fans, the brand and the club respectively, and we believe this agreement achieves that.’’
Vinny has got this one right; the club has been able to offer supporters a far broader range of leisurewear, bespoke to Wolves. The deal is not only ground-breaking but pretty much unique in the football world; whilst Castore manufactures all on-field playing kit and side-line apparel, it is Wolves themselves that ‘manufacture’ and distribute a range of replica products under license from Castore. This has allowed the club to adopt an aggressive approach to discounting that can only benefit supporters with more of the range available at competitive prices.
How are Wolves able to keep offering these discount deals? It’s all down to the club’s control of the manufacturing; they have intentionally planned for a ‘deal-led’ approach to selling stock. It is true that they promote frequently and achieve much lower selling prices than other clubs; however, it is not because of overstocking, or trying to achieve volume sales. Castore has a well-established incentivised growth model but Wolves are not chasing volume sales to meet Castore-led targets, they are seeking to grow the worldwide brand through their own manufactured range.
So, when the prices are low, the instant assumption might be that Wolves have too much stock but the reality is that isn’t the case, Vinny and the commercial operations team have come up with a concept that is working well for the club, and supporters. With much needed improvements to the logistics operation, delivery times generally have been massively improved, the Castore deal looks like being a real success story.
Whilst the Trust has wider concerns around sustainability, in particular the launch of new home and away kits every season. We are now seeing other clubs, such as Brentford, giving replica shirts a ‘two year’ life cycle for sustainability and affordability reasons. Its certainly something that needs consideration particularly if the club are going to deliver on its ‘one club, one planet’ commitments but that shouldn’t detract from what is a ‘good news’ story for the club and fans.