Golf Ball Factory Fire

[BIG STU]

23 hours ago, cnosil said:

Callaway has a plant in Chicopee, Massachusetts and Taylormade in Liberty, South Carolina.   

I thought the plant in Chicopee Mass was a Titleist plant. And yes the TM plant in Liberty is the old Dunlop/Slazenger plant. I think Bridgestone has a plant in Georgia too

[cnosil]

51 minutes ago, BIG STU said:

I thought the plant in Chicopee Mass was a Titleist plant. And yes the TM plant in Liberty is the old Dunlop/Slazenger plant. I think Bridgestone has a plant in Georgia too

Titleist is New Bedford, Massachusetts.  Yes, Bridgestone is in Covington, Georgia.

[storm319]

On 9/29/2023 at 3:13 PM, BIG STU said:

I thought the plant in Chicopee Mass was a Titleist plant. And yes the TM plant in Liberty is the old Dunlop/Slazenger plant. I think Bridgestone has a plant in Georgia too

Here are the US ball manufacturing facilities:

Callaway (Chicopee, MA) - old Spalding plant acquired in 2003. Currently produces Callaway’s multilayer urethane lineup. Capability for injection molded ionomer production, but likely at capacity with the Chrome Soft line (potentially gearing up for the next generation due in 2024).

Taylormade (Liberty, SC) - old Maxfli plant acquired in 2003/4. Limited to urethane cover assembly and finishing. No capacity for complete ball production. 

Bridgestone (Covington, GA) - dedicated to multilayer urethane offerings. Capability for injection molded ionomer production, but potentially at capacity with the Tour B line. 

Achushnet (New Bedford, MA and North Dartmouth, MA) - separate facilities for injection molding and cast thermoset urethane models. Shouldn’t be impacted by this since they produce 100% of their own balls unlike the other 3).

[storm319]

On 9/29/2023 at 8:39 AM, Hacker60521 said:

Probably not domestic, but there are other golf ball factories that they could go to I suppose. But no idea if they have enough excess capacity to cover 20% of the market. Hopefully, with the winter season coming up that demand will go down a bit and manufacturers can figure it out 

There are really only 4 independent factories that can produce balls in a meaningful capacity and the largest by capacity burned down.

Foremost (Taiwan)

Launch Technologies (Taiwan)

Feng Tay (Vietnam)

SM Parker (China/Vietnam)

Foremost is the only one with the capability for cast thermoset urethane covers, so they have been in high demand and at capacity for several years. Taylormade purchasing Nassau in late 2019 already stressed multiple DTCs but the implications of this will be much worse.

Bridgestone/Callaway/Taylormade may be able to free up some capacity in their facilities, but Launch was really just handling their lower priced ionomer offerings so it is doubtful that they will want to sacrifice capacity currently earmarked for their multilayer urethane offerings. 

Some DTCs may be able to simply go to Feng Tay or SM Parker if they have capacity and have them slap their logo on a white label offering, but it won’t be the same ball. Those that can’t secure capacity elsewhere may cease to exist.

[fixyurdivot]

Has anyone seen information on when this facility might be back on-line?  

[storm319]

28 minutes ago, fixyurdivot said:

Has anyone seen information on when this facility might be back on-line?  

Tony mentioned an estimate of around a year on the last NPG.

[Wozgolf]

Maybe it’s time for Wham-O! to make a comeback.

They’d have to work on the coloring, though.

[Headhammer]

On 9/29/2023 at 4:13 PM, BIG STU said:

I thought the plant in Chicopee Mass was a Titleist plant. And yes the TM plant in Liberty is the old Dunlop/Slazenger plant. I think Bridgestone has a plant in Georgia too

Yep, Bridgestone is right up the rode in Covington, GA.

[Hacker60521]

On 9/30/2023 at 4:45 PM, storm319 said:

There are really only 4 independent factories that can produce balls in a meaningful capacity and the largest by capacity burned down.

Foremost (Taiwan)

Launch Technologies (Taiwan)

Feng Tay (Vietnam)

SM Parker (China/Vietnam)

Foremost is the only one with the capability for cast thermoset urethane covers, so they have been in high demand and at capacity for several years. Taylormade purchasing Nassau in late 2019 already stressed multiple DTCs but the implications of this will be much worse.

Bridgestone/Callaway/Taylormade may be able to free up some capacity in their facilities, but Launch was really just handling their lower priced ionomer offerings so it is doubtful that they will want to sacrifice capacity currently earmarked for their multilayer urethane offerings. 

Some DTCs may be able to simply go to Feng Tay or SM Parker if they have capacity and have them slap their logo on a white label offering, but it won’t be the same ball. Those that can’t secure capacity elsewhere may cease to exist.

Wow. @storm319 how / why do you know all this? Really interesting 

[russtopherb]

On 9/30/2023 at 5:10 PM, storm319 said:

Acushnet (New Bedford, MA and North Dartmouth, MA) - separate facilities for injection molding and cast thermoset urethane models. Shouldn’t be impacted by this since they produce 100% of their own balls unlike the other 3).

For the record, both ball plants are in New Bedford. Ball Plant II is technically over the line into Dartmouth, but they're in the same industrial park and everything in there is considered to be New Bedford. Ball Plant III is where they have the public tours and the Pro V1s are made.