Acushnet 2022 Financials – Key Takeaways

2022 Total sales top $2.27 billion Nearly six-percent increase over 2021** Nearly $200 million in net profit Distant second to Topgolf Callaway**

The Acushnet 2022 financials are out and you can look at them a couple of different ways.

From one perspective, you could say Acushnet’s image in Topgolf Callaway’s rearview mirror is getting smaller by the day.

But from a slightly different perspective, it could be a case of the image in the mirror being closer than it appears.

Acushnet is reporting 2022 sales of $2.27 billion. That may sound like a pittance compared to the nearly $4 billion in sales reported by Topgolf Callaway last month. But as the new corporate moniker suggests, Topgolf Callaway is in the process of morphing into a golf-focused lifestyle and entertainment brand.

Acushnet is morphing, too. Just not to the same extent nor in the same direction as its chief competitor.

As always, the numbers tell an interesting story and we’re going to unpack them all in a moment. But this is the spot where we have to issue the standard MyGolfSpy disclaimer. We are not nor do we claim to be financial experts, investment counselors or Wall Street-level business analysts. We’re simply golf industry geeks who like to read.

With that out of the way, let’s get cracking.

Acushnet 2022 Financials: Big Money

Acushnet’s 2022 full-year sales total of $2.27 billion is, by any measure, a lot of cabbage. It represents a nearly six-percent increase over 2021. Additionally, Acushnet is reporting a robust $199.3-million net profit for the year. And that’s an 11.4-percent jump** over 2021.

(We’ll get to those asterisks in a bit, I promise.)

Sales were up across the board for Acushnet, although some categories did better than others. In the U.S., Titleist club sales were up more than 17 percent for the year while Titleist golf gear and accessories (hats, bags, gloves, etc) jumped more than 10 percent.

FootJoy sales in the U.S. rose 4.7 percent while golf ball sales increased 4.9 percent.

Globally, Acushnet’s golf ball sales hit nearly $679 million, only a 1.7-percent increase over 2021**. Golf club sales topped $609 million, a 10.5-percent increase over the previous year.** The Titleist Golf Gear and FootJoy divisions grew at identical rates of 6.4 percent**. FootJoy topped $618 million in sales worldwide while Titleist Golf Gear hit nearly $205 million.

Seeing as how Topgolf Callaway saw a 36-percent increase in golf ball sales, you’d think that might be of concern for Acushnet. However, in total sales, Topgolf Callaway sold just over $309 million worth of golf balls last year while Titleist sold more than double that.

With that data on the table, it’s time to look at those pesky asterisks (**).

Constant Currency and the Strong Dollar

The concept of Constant Currency has been a theme for Acushnet and Topgolf Callaway for the past year. When the U.S. dollar is strong it’s a boon for tourists. Your money goes a lot farther when you travel overseas. For U.S.-based companies with significant foreign sales, however, it’s a good swift kick to the financial groin. Those sales are, in essence, devalued.

To “normalize” those numbers, companies use Constant Currency which ties sales volume to what the U.S. dollar was worth the previous year. Both Acushnet and Topgolf Callaway added a Constant Currency value to their 2022 foreign sales figures which essentially shows what those sales would be worth if the exchange rate had stayed steady from 2021.

Using Constant Currency, Titleist golf club sales actually rose more than 16 percent (as opposed to 10.5 percent). FootJoy and Golf Gear sales each increased by more than 12 percent. And golf ball sales jumped nearly six percent.

Constant Currency also changes Acushnet’s performance in Japan and Korea a bit. Without using Constant Currency, Japan’s sales dropped by over 14 percent in 2022 while Korea dropped by just over three percent. But when the strong dollar is considered, Japan grew just over two percent while Korea was up over nine percent.

Acushnet 2022 Financials: What Does It All Mean?

It’s clear TopGolf Callaway put a bit of dent in Titleist golf ball sales in 2022. The company acknowledges raw material shortages hindered last year’s golf ball sales. Availability, after all, is king. And Acushnet does report the 2022 growth is due primarily to higher selling prices along with higher volumes.

No matter how you slice it, nearly $200 million in profit is a nice, tidy sum. Despite TopGolf Callaway’s much larger sales number, it showed a 2022 net profit of only $158 million. EBITDA, however, paints a slightly different picture.

EBITDA stands for Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization and is used to reflect sales performance versus expenses before the finance department gets involved. Acushnet’s 2022 EBITDA is a reported $338 million. Topgolf Callaway’s is $558 million.

 

Apples to Apples

On one level, Topgolf Callaway and Acushnet aren’t even playing the same corporate game.

On another level, however, the two companies are more similar than it would appear.

If we take Topgolf and apparel out of the equation, we can drill down to how the two companies stack up on just golf stuff. Through that lens, we see that Callaway golf club sales hit nearly $1.1 billion in 2022 compared to nearly $610 million for Titleist. Both companies experienced a 16-percent Constant Currency sales increase in 2022.

As mentioned, Callaway golf ball sales topped $309 million last year. That represents a 36-percent increase and a high-water mark of 21-percent market share. Titleist, however, still reigns supreme in golf balls with nearly $679 million in sales.

If you combine the hard goods (just balls and clubs), Topgolf Callaway hits $1.4 billion while Acushnet comes in at $1.29 billion. As we said, images in the mirror may be closer than they appear. And while we don’t know where the privately held TaylorMade stands, it’s a fair guess that it is also a member of the Billion Dollar Club.

Callaway’s Active Lifestyle Division (TravisMathew, OGIO, Jack Wolfskin and other gear and accessories) also topped $1 billion in sales last year. Acushnet’s comp is FootJoy and Titleist Golf Gear which sold more than $823 million. Just last month, Acushnet added Club Glove to its stable of companies as it continues to diversify into areas of the business beyond balls and clubs.

Acushnet 2022 Financials: Final Thoughts

Of course, you can’t take Topgolf out of the equation. It’s a $1.5-billion juggernaut of a division and is growing. Additionally, Topgolf provides opportunities for more people to experience Callaway equipment in what the company calls the new “golf ecosystem.” Several new Topgolf centers feature demo and fitting areas which create new avenues for direct-to-consumer sales.

At this point, Acushnet has shown no interest in going down the entertainment/lifestyle path. By nature, it’s a more conservative company that’s intent on maximizing its core business, which is traditional, on-course golf, and its core customers, who are traditional, on-course golfers.

It’s clear to anyone with eyes that Topgolf Callaway has become a diversified corporate behemoth focusing on the golf lifestyle. We’ve said before that in that particular context, Topgolf Callaway is playing chess while the rest of the industry is playing Candyland. But when you break down Acushnet’s financials, you can make a slightly adjusted case. Yes, Topgolf Callaway is playing chess and, yes, the rest of the industry by comparison is playing Candyland.

Acushnet, however, appears to be playing golf.

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