[Albion] BHAFC: Premier League club with League One retail department

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Beanstalk

Well-known member
Apr 5, 2017
3,029
London
Interesting one this - I see SportsDirect sell 16 of the current Premier League clubs' kits - presumably the club don't think it's worth them doing this. https://www.sportsdirect.com/football-shirts/premier-league-football-shirts
It's more like 12 as 4 of those clubs only have retro-style shirts made by third parties available but I think it's less about the club and more about Nike.

My understanding is that the way shirt deals work is quite complicated. Normally (and historically), clubs receive a fixed amount of money from the supplier and then a commission on any shirts sold over a certain amount (normally extremely high). Liverpool broke the norm in 2020 by agreeing a deal with Nike where they received a lower fixed amount but got 20% commission on all shirts sold (from day 1) and the club and Nike flooded the global market with shirts so they made more money than they did with New Balance.

I think the club probably play it fairly safe rather than trying to conquer a global market as a relatively small player. They'll bank a high fixed fee from Nike (though probably only in the 7 digit space) and won't get close to the sales threshold for commission to kick in. Because of this, there isn't really an incentive to overstock shirts in the club shop as the club are getting the same amount of money regardless, and there isn't the demand for Nike to spend their money on a continuous restocking process that would eat into their margins. If there is not enough demand (Liverpool's threshold was around a million shirts sold for context) for restocking the sole supplier regularly then stocking Sports Direct would be more costly and likely result in a loss for Nike whilst not bringing Brighton any additional income.
 




Mellotron

I've asked for soup
Jul 2, 2008
32,468
Brighton
@Bozza - is the club aware that this sentiment is held by (most likely) a sizeable number of Albion fans?
 






Stat Brother

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 11, 2003
73,888
West west west Sussex
@Bozza - is the club aware that this sentiment is held by (most likely) a sizeable number of Albion fans?
I'll bet the club is accutely aware but are happy with the margins.

I'm sure they have soared past projected sales targets and look upon 'empty shelves' as maximizing profit as opposed to missed opportunities.
 






Stat Brother

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 11, 2003
73,888
West west west Sussex
I would hope they have more business acumen than this.
Not if overstocking results in an end of season firesale wiping out a huge chunk of profit, and taking money away from next seasons 'store opening'.
 


Beanstalk

Well-known member
Apr 5, 2017
3,029
London
I'll bet the club is accutely aware but are happy with the margins.

I'm sure they have soared past projected sales targets and look upon 'empty shelves' as maximizing profit as opposed to missed opportunities.
Yes, this is most likely. What it might result in, is a case for a higher up-front fee from Nike for the next deal, who in return will need to supply more stock to cover the additional fee. Nothing will change this season.
 






dolphins

Well-known member
Jan 26, 2012
5,660
BN1, in GOSBTS
That might be part of the problem, we're a very well run. The club wants to make sure it doesn't end up with a load of out of date stock at the end of the season have to sell it off cheap like so many other clubs do. You could say we are incredibly well run in the merchandise area, we never have any left over stock at the end of the season. .
I used to LOVE the concourse sales at the end of the season, not least there would also be interesting samples that were never sold, available. I picked up loads of stuff in them. And the prices were always really, really good... but then, that's maybe why stock levels aren't so bountiful these days.
 


dolphins

Well-known member
Jan 26, 2012
5,660
BN1, in GOSBTS
Oh and another vote for the return of pick-up of orders at the Amex. Totally understand not on a match-day, but during the week when the staff have nothing to really do in the store, it would be much appreciated. I live pretty close to the stadium so resent having to pay postage for online orders, when I used to be able to just wander up there.
 


Sid and the Sharknados

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Sep 4, 2022
5,695
Darlington
Very short term viewpoint missing the much bigger picture, IMO.
If we were to go "much bigger picture", the constant push for growth, greater profit and more consumption is one of the major causes of a lot of the world's problems.

I appreciate that if you want to buy a home shirt in medium and they're out of stock then this probably won't make you feel any better.
 




Mellotron

I've asked for soup
Jul 2, 2008
32,468
Brighton
If we were to go "much bigger picture", the constant push for growth, greater profit and more consumption is one of the major causes of a lot of the world's problems.

I appreciate that if you want to buy a home shirt in medium and they're out of stock then this probably won't make you feel any better.
I'm not really talking specifically about "more stock", I think that's been more a bugbear of other posters on here. My gripes are nothing really to do with any personal experience of seeing a specific item not in stock.
 


Stat Brother

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 11, 2003
73,888
West west west Sussex
Very short term viewpoint missing the much bigger picture, IMO.
I'm not saying it's right.
As said earlier this should be a conversation for the end of March not the first week in February.

But I can see how it happened, how the club have been caught out and very much how it's not a case of 'simple unscaling'.
 


Mellotron

I've asked for soup
Jul 2, 2008
32,468
Brighton
I'm not saying it's right.
As said earlier this should be a conversation for the end of March not the first week in February.

But I can see how it happened, how the club have been caught out and very much how it's not a case of 'simple unscaling'.
I broadly agree. When I was querying with @Bozza as to whether the club was aware of a large number of fans negative views of the club's marketing and merchandising department, I wasn't really talking specifically about stock levels.

That's a very small part of a much bigger conversation.
 


Thunder Bolt

Silly old bat
I'll bet the club is accutely aware but are happy with the margins.

I'm sure they have soared past projected sales targets and look upon 'empty shelves' as maximizing profit as opposed to missed opportunities.
Replenished kit came back in at the beginning of February. I have already said I bought one for my 18 yr old grandson last Friday. He wanted to get one at Christmas, and one of the staff said they were getting a delivery in February (which they did).
 




tmws547

New member
Feb 2, 2024
1
Hi everyone, I’m sure many of you have seen the De Zerbi Moretti design I put together and a few people have got in touch more recently about how to get hold of a tshirt. I’ll put the link below if anyone wants to grab one and there’s a couple of other designs there as well.
Cheers and up the Albion
https://tsdesigns-2.teemill.com/
 


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