Operator
Hello everyone and thank you for joining us for today's Cushnet Company 4Q24 earnings call. My name is Drew and I'll be the operator today. During today's call after the prepared remarks we will have a Q&A session. If you would like to ask a question please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad and if you wish to withdraw your question then it is star followed by two. It's now my pleasure to hand over to Sandra Lennon, Vice President of FP&A and Investor relations. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for a Cushnet Holding Corp's fourth quarter and full year 2024 earnings conference call. Joining me this morning are David Marr, our president and chief executive officer, and Sean Sullivan, our chief financial officer. Before turning the call over to David, I would like to remind everyone that we will make forward-looking statements on the call today. These forward-looking statements are based on Kushnit's current expectations and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Actual results may differ materially from these expectations. For a list of factors that could cause actual results to differ, please see today's press release, the slides that accompany our presentation, and our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Throughout this discussion, we will make reference to non-GAAP financial metrics, including items such as net sales on a constant currency basis and adjusted EBITDA. Explanations of how and why we use these metrics and reconciliations of these items to the most directly comparable GAAP metrics can be found in the schedules in today's press release, the slides that accompany this presentation, and in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Please also note that references throughout this presentation to year-on-year net sales increases and decreases are on a constant currency basis unless otherwise stated, as we feel this measurement best provides context as to the performance and trends of our business. And when referring to year-to-date or full-year results or comparisons, we are referring to the 12-month period ended December 31st, 2024, and the comparable 12-month period in 2023. With that, I'll turn the call over to David.
Thanks, Sandra, and good morning, everyone. As always, we appreciate your interest in Acushnet and look forward to sharing our 2024 results and future outlook today. Starting on slide four, the company delivered fourth quarter sales of $445 million, up 8% for the period, and adjusted EBITDA of $12.4 million. Strong golf equipment sales led by Titleist GT Metals and double-digit gains in gear drove this growth, and our team did good work balancing healthy at-once demand while also preparing for several first-quarter product launches. Now, to full-year results, Akushnet achieved sales of $2.46 billion in 2024, a 4% constant currency gain, and adjusted EBITDA of $404 million, a 7.5% increase for the year. These results were made possible thanks to the talented and dedicated associates who make up a Kushnit, including our longest-serving teammate who works in golf ball operations and next week celebrates his 55th anniversary with the company. To underscore key themes of 2024, our team generated terrific momentum in Titleist Golf equipment, which increased net sales 7% for the year. Titleist golf ball sales in 2024 grew 4%, which is noteworthy given this followed the 2023 Pro V1 launch year when ball sales increased double digits. We generally expect second year sales to be down slightly due to the timing associated with our two-year product cycles performance in 2024 was fueled by balanced growth across our pro v1 and performance models and strong adoption throughout the pyramid of influence titleless golf clubs also posted strong results in 2024 with overall sales up double digits and growth in all regions led by the u.s and japan our sm10 wedge launch in q1 and gt metals launch in Q3 were well received and these franchises are in great shape as we start the 2025 season and also plan for the new putter and iron launches. Our gear segment posted 5% growth for the year led by gains in our travel category. Again, growth was led by the U.S. market which was up double digits. FJ sales were off 2% for the year with gains in the U.S. more than offset by declines in international markets. FootJoy has done good work navigating what has been a correcting footwear and apparel market, effectively managing inventories and leaning into high performance offerings across footwear, apparel and gloves. In doing so, FootJoy delivered improved bottom line performance in 2024 despite a top line decline. And in our other category, which is comprised of Titleist Apparel and Shoes, the key 2024 themes are continued growth of Shoes Golf in the U.S. and U.K. and softness in the Asia-specific Titleist Apparel market. A cushioned strong financial performance in 2024 supported ongoing investment across our business and the company's commitment to returning capital to shareholders. For the year, dividend and share repurchases totaled $227 million, bringing our total return over the past three years to more than $850 million. And furthering this commitment to shareholders, I am pleased to announce that Akushnet's directors have approved a 9% increase to our quarterly dividend payout in 2025 to $0.23.5 per share. This marks the eighth consecutive annual dividend increase since the program was initiated in 2017. As Sean will discuss, we have also increased our share repurchase authorization. These actions reflect the Board's confidence in the Cushnet's ability to execute and generate cash flow and their positive outlook towards the company's leading position within the golf industry. As you will continue to see, we are focused on investing to position the company for future growth while also returning capital to shareholders as appropriate. Now looking ahead to 2025 starting with a few industry data points that inform our planning and outlook. In the U.S. market rounds increased two percent in 2024 to a record 543 million. Noteworthy is that these rounds were played across some 16,000 golf courses, a supply that is down about 1,500 courses since 2000. Driving this participation growth is a golfer base that increased 6% in 2024 to 28.1 million golfers. This 1.5 million net gain represents the largest single year increase since 2000, and the number of beginners top 3 million for the fifth consecutive year in a row. Given these metrics, it is not surprising that 70% of public facilities rate their financial health as good or excellent, verse 23 percent in 2016, and 80 percent of private golf courses report good or excellent financial health, verse 46 percent in 2016. Annual U.S. rounds are up over 20 percent since 2019, as is participation in the U.K., Canada, Korea, and Australia. Japan play has grown 10% during the same period. Healthy golfer participation and in particular the strength of the dedicated golfer are the foundation for our perspective on the state of the global game and particularly in the U.S. Looking outside the U.S., we are planning for growth, however, continue to take a measured approach for while golf participation has been resilient, the macroeconomic backdrop in key regions continues to be more challenging and while fx headwinds and tariff uncertainty are inevitable pieces of the planning process we remain confident in our ability to execute against our priorities and what we can control for golf equipment we are excited about new pro v1 and pro v1x golf ball models and expect increases across all regions the first pro v1 was launched 25 years ago and the past quarter century has been defined by innovation and our team's commitment to continuous improvement. While early in the season, Pro V1 usage on worldwide tours is up to 77 percent, more than nine times the nearest competitor. We are enthused about our opportunity and our team has developed some great campaigns to tell our story in 2025. For Titleist As golf clubs, we carry healthy momentum into the year and expect to benefit from recent investments to our product development engine and expanding fitting networks across the While our first quarter launch calendar is smaller than last year's, as is the case in odd-numbered years, we look forward to launching new Titleist GT hybrids, GT1 metals, and a new lineup of Cameron Studio-style putters to start the season, following the new irons later this year. We also expect growth from our gear segment led by new Titleist products and the continued development of our Club Glove travel franchise in 2025. We are confident in our outlook for FootJoy, which anticipates a strong product pipeline and higher concentration of premium performance footwear products like Premier, HyperFlex, and Quantum Golf Shoes, leading to improve profitability. We expect FJ sales to be roughly flat for the year, with organic growth offset by reduced closeout sales and strategic product line rationalization. After recent period of correction in global golf footwear, we see a healthier environment in 2025. In support of these priorities and longer-term growth opportunities, we plan to make several strategic investments in 2025 to build out our global fitting network for golf equipment and footwear, expand the reach of our B2B and D2C capabilities to new regions, and invest in the future of the Titleist Performance Institute, or TPI, where we see expansion opportunities in the coming years. And we are pleased with recent capital investments in golf equipment R&D and operations and are confident these projects will fuel enhanced innovation product development and golfer connection capabilities core attributes to the long-term success of Titleist equipment as noted on our last call we recently completed the transition of our footwear manufacturing from China to Vietnam and expect this will lead to greater product development capabilities and a more durable supply chain as Sean will address we are also in the process of implementing a new global erp system collectively we expect these investments to support our future growth plans and generate increased operating leverage over the long term and in summary we are optimistic about the structural health of the golf industry and are focused on expanding our momentum in the titleless golf equipment segment strengthening our gear and fj wearables businesses and investing in key initiatives that will pay dividends over the next several years. I have confidence in the Akushnet team and their ability to provide dedicated golfers with leading products and services as we seek to build long-term value for our shareholders. Thanks for your attention this morning. I will now pass the call over to Sean.
Thank you, David. Good morning, everyone. To begin, I'd like to discuss a few items that have impacted the 2024 financials. First, as we discussed last quarter, I want to highlight the combination of our previous Titleist Golf Balls and Golf Club segments into Titleist Golf Equipment segments. This new reporting structure best reflects the way in which we are now managing and allocating resources to the golf equipment business. As you can see in today's earnings release, we will still provide net sales detail for golf balls and clubs within the financials. Next, the company made a change in accounting principle related to the presentation of distribution and shipping and handling costs, moving these costs from SG&A expense into cost of goods sold. Distribution expense is a cost essential to the fulfillment and delivery of our products to our customers and as such is more meaningfully presented as a cost of sales rather than SG&A. This presentation change also makes our financial statements more comparable to some of our closest industry peers. The impact of this change for 2024 and 2023 has been included in today's earnings release. Lastly, I want to point out that we recorded a one-time benefit to our income statement associated with a change in the company's paid time off policy, or PTO, totaling approximately $18 million in the fourth quarter. The amount of the benefit that is included in gross profit, SG&A, and R&D is $7 million, $9 million, and $2 million dollars respectively. The total amount has been excluded from adjusted EBITDA as noted in our reconciliation. Now turning toward 2024 financial results. Fourth quarter net sales were in line with our expectations and up 7.9 percent when compared to the fourth quarter of 2023 with higher net sales across all reportable segments. Adjusted EBITDA was 12.4 million dollars approximately $14 million better than last year's fourth quarter. Looking at our segments, Titleist Golf Equipment was up 7.4% in the quarter, largely due to higher sales volumes of our recently launched GT drivers and fairways, along with higher average selling prices. These increases were partially offset by lower volumes of our second model year irons. FootJoy net sales grew 1.9% during the fourth quarter, driven by higher volumes in footwear. Golf gear net sales increased 17.3 percent driven by higher sales volumes in travel product categories and golf gloves. Looking at the full year results in 2024, net sales and adjusted EBITDA increased 3.9 percent and 7.5 percent respectively with net sales increases in our Titleist golf equipment and golf gear segments. Turning to results by region on On slide 7, in the fourth quarter, we saw net sales growth across all regions except Japan. In the full year, the U.S. led the growth, up 7.2%, and EMEA, rest of world, and Korea were slightly up during the year. Japan was down 3.5%, as higher net sales in Titleist Golf Equipment was more than offset by decreases in other categories. overall fourth quarter gross profit of 208 million dollars was up 27 million or 15.2 percent compared to last year's fourth quarter with increases across all reportable segments reported gross margin of 46.7 percent was up 300 basis points the impact from the one-time pto benefit was 150 basis points on gross margin for the quarter for the full year was 1.2 billion dollars up six percent or 68 million primarily resulting from increased volumes in titleless golf equipment and golf gear gross margin grew to 48.3 percent up 130 basis points from last year primarily driven by a favorable product mix shift the impact for the one-time pto benefit was 20 basis points on gross margin for 2024. sgna expense of 193 million dollars in the quarter increased $9 million, or 5%, compared to the fourth quarter of 2023, and includes a $9 million benefit related to the one-time PTO adjustment. SG&A expense of $802 million for the full year increased $46 million, or 6.1%, from 2023, and includes the $9 million PTO benefit. The increase was primarily due to $18 million of restructuring costs related to our footwear manufacturing move to Vietnam which is included in operating income but added back for adjusted EBITDA purposes. The increase was also impacted by higher employee expenses including the support of our golf equipment fitting initiatives, higher information technology related expenses, and higher A&P expense related to new product launches. Interest expense was up 11 million dollars for the full year due to an increase in borrowings and a higher weighted average interest rate in 2024. Our full-year effective tax rate was 19.2 percent, up from 17.8 percent last year. The increase in ETR was primarily driven by changes in our jurisdictional mix of earnings, as well as changes in our valuation allowance. Moving to our balance sheet and cash flow highlights, our balance sheet and cash flow positions continue to be very strong, allowing us to execute our capital allocation strategy, with ongoing investments in the business and return of capital to shareholders being our highest priorities. Our net leverage ratio at the end of 2024 was 1.8 times. Our inventory levels remain healthy, and we're down $40 million, or about 6% from year-end 2023. Capital expenditures for 2024 were $75 million, dollars slightly lower than our 80 million dollar expectation for the year as david noted in 2024 we returned roughly 227 million dollars to shareholders with 173 million in share repurchases and 54 million in cash dividends today we announced an increased quarterly dividend of 23 and a half cents per share which will be payable on march 21st to shareholders of record on March 7, 2025. During the fourth quarter, we repurchased approximately 440,000 shares of our common stock for $30 million, bringing our full year repurchases to approximately 2.7 million shares for a total of $173 million. On February 13, 2025, our board of directors increased the share repurchase authorization by an additional $250 million, bringing the total authorization to $1.25 billion since the share repurchase program was established in 2018. As of February 21st, 2025, the remaining share repurchase authorization was approximately $434 million, and the number of shares outstanding was $59.9 million. Turning to our full year 2025 outlook, full year net sales is projected to be between $2.485 billion and $2.535 billion on a reported basis, including an estimated $35 million negative impact from foreign currency year over year. On a constant currency basis, our current expectation is that consolidated net sales will be up between 2.6% and 4.6% compared to 2024, with growth across all reportable segments as well as growth both domestically and internationally. Our full-year adjusted EBITDA is expected to be between $405 and $420 million and includes the estimated negative impacts from foreign currency. At the midpoint, our adjusted EBITDA margin would be approximately 16.4%. This outlook does not reflect the impact of any recently announced tariffs by the U.S. or potential retaliatory actions taken by other countries as the tariff and trade environment remains uncertain at this time and continues to evolve as we have previously mentioned we source about six percent of our cost of goods sold from china and have limited exposure to canada and mexico the china 10 incremental tariff would equate to an approximately seven million dollar headwind we are actively exploring actions to mitigate this impact including leveraging our supply chain and potential pricing actions as we remain committed to driving sustainable long-term growth, we are investing in the business through many strategic initiatives extending into 2025 and beyond. As David mentioned, this includes investments in our global fitting network across both our Titleist golf equipment and FootJoy segments and expanding our global digital commerce presence. We are also in the process of a multi-year implementation of a new global cloud-based ERP system to provide scalability, simplified standardized processes, and enhanced supply chain and finance capabilities we anticipate this new global erp platform will enable further operating efficiencies and support our digital transformation as a result of these key strategic initiatives we expect full year 2025 sdna growth to be higher than our sales growth projections these initiatives are critical to delivering long-term sustainable growth and operating leverage in the years to come we expect capital expenditures for 2025 to be approximately 85 million dollars. In addition, we expect to invest 15 to 20 million dollars in capitalized implementation costs associated with our worldwide ERP platform. Looking at the first half of 2025, we expect reported net sales to be up low single digits compared to the first half of 2024, with growth primarily coming from titleless golf equipment driven by the new Pro V1 launch and continued momentum of our GT Metals product line, including the launch of the GT1 drivers and fairways and GT hybrids. We expect adjusted EBITDA to be slightly lower than the first half of 2024 due to increased operating expenses and the estimated negative impacts from foreign currency. From a quarterly standpoint, we expect net sales and adjusted EBITDA to be more weighted to the second quarter. This is different than last year's cadence due to the outsized impact of Vokey wedges launched in the first quarter of last year. On a reported basis, we expect first quarter net sales to be below prior year as we are forecasting a 10 to 15 million dollar foreign currency headwind. We would also expect this currency headwind to have a negative impact on adjusted EBITDA in the first quarter. In closing, we are pleased with our performance in 2024 and remain focused on executing on our priorities in 2025 and beyond. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Sandra for Q&A.
Thank you, Sean. Operator, could we now open up the lines for questions?
Operator
If you would like to ask a question on today's call, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. If you wish to withdraw your question, then it is star followed by two. Our first question today comes from Joseph Altebello from Raymond James. If your line is now open, please go ahead.
Thanks. Hey, guys. Good morning. I guess first question on the quarter, the gross margin up 300 basis points, I think the PTO benefit was half of that. So, and I apologize if I missed this, what drove the other half of the improvement year over year?
Yeah, Joe, just continued performance in the golf equipment segment. You know, we had growth across all of the product segments on the top line. I think we've got a more normalized supply chain, moderating freight and distribution environment, which allowed us to deliver incremental gross margin for Q4.
Okay. And shifting over to the investments you guys called out this morning, is there a way to quantify how much of that is hitting in 25? And should we think of those as sort of one time in nature, or are they going to continue going forward?
Yeah, I don't know that we quantify how much hits in 25, Joe, but we did call out a handful that will be outsized in 25 and normalized in the out years.
Yeah, I think, Joe, again, I just pointed to the guide we gave you on revenue and adjusted EBITDA. We do think that, you know, 2025 brings, you know, a consistent or expanding gross margin for the company in total. We talked a bit about the SG&A and delivering an EBITDA margin generally in line with where we're at today. So, you know, obviously the global ERP is a multi-year. Building out the fitting network globally is something that we will continue to do. But obviously, as you see, given the performance of the golf equipment segment, has and yields tremendous benefits. So I'll leave it at that.
Yeah, and I just said, we've talked for a while, Joe, about the build-out of our digital capabilities, the build-out of our fitting network. At some point, they'll be built out, right? This is us taking our efforts to new markets. and again at some point they will be built out we we think we're you know we're spending investing in 25 but in 26 and 27 we should be closer to the build out phase than we are now okay very helpful thank you thanks joe operator next question please of course our next question comes from megan clap from morgan stanley your line is now open please proceed hey good morning thanks so much um i wanted to start with the top line guide sean you gave a lot of helpful
commentary on the first half but as it relates to the full year midpoint and constant currency up three and a half percent um should we expect your commentary around the first half to be consistent with the full year in terms of most of the growth is coming from golf equipment and within that between balls and clubs understand you're not going to uh disclose the difference between the two going forward, but could you just help us understand how you're thinking about balls versus clubs in the context of the overall golf equipment guide for the year?
Sure, and just to clarify, we will be continuing to give you sales information for clubs and balls separately, so you're not losing that. It's really the aggregated segment P&L through OI that will be aggregated. So as we talk about the guide, Balls, again, it's a Pro V1 launch year, so I would expect a large part of the growth in Balls to be first half versus second half. At the same time, the club business, as David and I talked about, we've got some upcoming launches with the Cameron putters as well as the GT1 and the GT hybrid, and then irons later in the year. So I would expect the growth in the club business to be more weighted to the second quarter. But overall, we feel very good about the growth in the golf equipment segment for the full year. You didn't ask this question, but again, FootJoy is very much focused on profitability as we've gone and taken some pricing actions, some product line rationalization, and really are more focused on driving higher profitability with a more premium appropriate offering in that segment. So I don't know if that's helpful color or context to the overall guide, but those are some of the thoughts that are impacting. Again, the foreign currency headwind is obviously a real one.
Operator
The question comes from Matthew Boss from JP Morgan. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
So maybe, David, if you could elaborate on current health of the golf industry, maybe in the U.S. versus international, and just how you see that translating to rounds played in in 25 and sustainability of the trends that you're seeing yeah uh matt so i i'll start with with rounds of play um right really strong year in in in the u.s um given all the the inputs whether it's new golfers capacity etc um our general approach and this wouldn't differ given particularly we're coming off record a record year would be to think about rounds as being flat And then Mother Nature does what she does, and that pushes you up or down. But the golfer supply, the participation rates are healthy. We've been doing this for a long, long time. In my time here, we generally think of rounds as flat, and then that informs our planning process. Again, when we get good weather, we'll see upward ticks. When we get poor weather, we'll see it go downwards. But I will point to just the inputs that inform our thinking. And I made a couple of these comments in my prepared remarks around the golfer supply and the golfer base. So generally a healthy golfer base that is the starting point to our thinking. You know, in terms of rest of world, the trends are similar. The dedicated golfer behavior is similar, but macroeconomic conditions have not been as robust. They were softer in 23 and 24, and we expect similar conditions in 25. That said, we are planning for growth outside the U.S. in our business. So part of that's new products, part of that's share, et cetera. So, high level, we like what we see from a golfer perspective. We like what we see from a participation perspective. There's always an element of caution baked into our planning, whether it's U.S. and tariffs and inflation or ex-U.S., particularly in Japan and Korea. And the final area I'd look at is what does the market look like? Certainly, the Greengrass Channel globally is very healthy. Our retail partners, of course, are healthy as well. And inventories are in very much a normal place for this time of year. And we were asked, we've been asked over the last couple of weeks about January sell-through. And my key takeaways from January sell-through, which was generally positive, was that pricing held up pretty well. And what you sometimes see in January is you see some real price pressure as retailers and OEMs sometimes clear the decks to prepare for new product launches. We didn't see that in January. So, Matt, we'll throw a lot at you there, but some review. Golf are still in pretty good shape. You know the macroeconomic pressures as well as I do. We feel better about the U.S. than we do in Japan and Korea. That's not different from the last couple of years. And, again, our retailers are in a generally healthy spot. So I think the summation of all that is our guide, and we're projecting growth in segments and growth in all regions, albeit a little faster paced in the U.S.
And then, Sean, just on gross margin, could you walk through puts and takes to consider this year and just health of channel inventory in the U.S. versus overseas today?
Yeah, just to add on, I'll take the second one first. You know, I think the health of the channel inventory is very good. You know, we obviously have worked through the FootJoy apparel and footwear that we've been talking about probably for several quarters internationally. But we feel very, very good about the health of the channel inventory for 25. As it relates to gross margin, you know, I'll talk a bit on the top line. You know, certainly we didn't raise pricing on PROV1 in the U.S., but we did take pricing action, I think, in three or four of the international markets. You're aware of the pricing we took in the club business, et cetera. We'll do similarly in certain product categories within FootJoy. So I think there's an element of higher ESPs coming into 2025 as it relates to cost of goods sold and distribution. As I said, you know, the supply chain feels normalized. I think the fray environment, frayed in, frayed out, is a little more normalized with no longer the threat of strikes, et cetera. You know, we are continuing to see the benefits and efficiencies of our owned and controlled distribution center here domestically in Massachusetts, which what I would expect would continue to drive incremental efficiencies and leverage in the business. So, overall, you know, we feel about the gross margin environment, as I said, meeting and expanding relative to 24 in the 2025 period.
Thanks, Matt. Next question.
Operator
Yeah. Our next question comes from Mike Swartz from Truist Securities. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Hey, good morning, guys. Maybe just to follow up to Matt's last question. And I think with the global outlook, it sounds like you're thinking kind of flattish status quo, sounds like you're taking some pricing. How do you think about just in that organic growth outlook, just the view between maybe unit volume and pricing? Is most of that pricing or are you looking for some unit volume growth as well?
Yeah, I would say it's a combination of the two. You know, I often refer to our product launch lifecycle calendars. it's a pro v1 year. If I look back, I think we were up double digits in 23. We had a nice ball year last year, which is not always the case in a year following a launch year. But we would certainly see a combination of unit growth and pricing, particularly on the equipment side, Mike, maybe a little bit of a different story in the rest of our business, which would be probably more level volumes, but a bit more price on the gear and wearable side.
Okay, that's helpful. And then just with the tariff commentary, just maybe a little more context there. I think you had said your guidance doesn't include any potential tariffs or retaliatory actions, but then I think you also said that it's about a $7 million hit on the incremental 10 percent to China coming out of China. Does the guidance actually include that 7 million or not include that 7 million?
Yeah, Mike, it does not include. I just think the environment is fairly dynamic right now. So we thought to be reasonable and prudent was to highlight what we saw as the potential risk and isolate it for everyone as opposed to baking it So as we go forward here, we can update you each quarter. But again, I think that the important points for the investor base is that we have minimal exposure to Canada and Mexico given our operations. We've done a wonderful job with our supply chain in having, you know, for one example, moving to Vietnam with the footwear production, which was completed and is fully operational here in 25. So I think to have 6% exposure of cost of goods sold to China, I think, is a good place for us to be. You can imagine we're working with the teams to evaluate the supply chain, other geographic sourcing options, as well as any potential pricing actions to mitigate that. So that's our best outlook today and felt best to exclude it from the guide. and you know we we've quantified it for you and we're we're uh hard at work uh looking for ways to mitigate helpful thank you great thank you operator next question please thank you our next question comes from jp wallam from roth capital partners your line is now open please go ahead morning everyone thanks for uh taking my questions um if we could maybe just start um kind of assessing the the fall segment year.
I just wanted to maybe click in on. On I know you said that I think it was. What else can you talk about? Kind of how that held up in the year and where that growth came from? And and it's really just as I think about kind of how well it could do in the launch year going forward. And. new channel new opportunity that arose in 2024.
JP you just broke up a bit um so I don't know that we got your entire question I'm sorry can you hear me all right yeah that's a little bit better perfect really just assessing the pro v1 strength in 2024 and kind of what that can tell us about you know just how strong of a launch year we can have in 2025 yeah okay jp thanks um as i said you know this just to walk it back a bit we're in year uh 25 of of pro v1 which we're incredibly excited about and i said it earlier it's it's a it's a journey of of innovation and continuous improvement um we we take that uh initiative and charge very seriously so on on the product side we're very excited about pro v1 uh counts around the worldwide tours are up to 77 which is higher than we would typically see and we point to the performance and quality of the pro v1 as a key driver to that in terms of of the last couple years and what it means for 2025 it starts with product it it is followed by we talk a lot about expanding our fitting networks that's not just clubs that's balls too we've got a whole lot of ball fitting happening around the world that we think pays off um it's it's the positioning of avx within the line it's our performance model so it's not just pro v1 and again it was a terrific year for us to grow on the on the heels of of a 13 percent increase in 2023 in golf balls to do so in 24 when you think about the pipeline realities that happen in the launch year that don't repeat in a non-launch year. So I'll get to 2025. And really, it's a product story. It's a fitting story. The team is committed to really telling our story well. Part of our investment in 2025 is in A&P to tell the great story that we think we have to tell um as as we look to expand our reach in the golf marketplace so um we are anticipating and planning for growth as sean said a lot of that will be first half but we're anticipating and planning for growth um in in 2025 it won't be the double digit level we're not planning for the double digit level we saw in 2023 our last launch um but we're certainly planning for a nice growth in the golf ball franchise. If there's one takeaway from today, it's the health and vibrancy of our equipment segment, balls and clubs, and our willingness to continue to invest behind those franchises to continue to grow them.
Thank you. And one follow-up just on FootJoy.
I know you mentioned kind of a skew rationalization and maybe some price but can you just share what else gives you confidence that that maybe we've kind of troughed in that business yeah i think it starts you you hit it it's what what we're the actions we're taking and and there's some skewer skew reduction there's some line rationalization but more than anything it's it's the uh new product pipeline we have um on the footwear side we we've had some outsized growth at apparel. That business is in really good shape. So the things we're controlling, we think, are very positive. This also underscores the reality that the last couple of years in footwear have been very tough. I think global footwear, or at least footwear sell-through in the U.S., was down upwards of 10% last year. And I think that we're at a point where The footwear marketplace has corrected. I think it's going to normalize a bit in 2025, which should provide a better backdrop for us to execute our strategy. And again, the strategy really leads with premium performance product. I mentioned Premier. We're launching Hyperflex next week. We launched Quantum a few weeks ago. High performance products that we think have meaningful points of difference, both in terms of performance, benefit and style. So, like the actions we're taking, and I think the marketplace is going to be healthier, and we see that in inventory data. We call that out in the U.S. We saw it improve last year. We thought it would take longer, ex-U.S., to improve, and it has, but we're approaching 2025 for the first time in a couple of years, as though the footwear market will be normalized.
Thank you, and best of luck going forward.
Thanks, JP. operator next question our next question today is from noah zapskin from key bank capital markets your line is now open please proceed hi thanks for taking my questions um i guess first um just wondering if you could kind of um provide any thoughts around the competitive environment looking out to 2025 um i know some others have kind of pointed to maybe a more robust launch calendar in terms of industry product launches than in recent prior years. So just wondering if you had any thoughts there. I know you also kind of pointed to maybe promo kind of in check in January, but just any thoughts on promo looking out as well.
Yeah, yeah. Real-time data, promos in check in January. That's the best way to think about it. You know, we're on a little bit of a different calendar than most of the market. We launched our driver in Q3. A lot of our competitors launch products in the first part of the year. We see the market as very competitive as it always is. So I'm not sure I see it meaningfully different from years past. It does sort of prompt me to remind everybody of our dedicated golfer focus and that we're a bit more narrow in our approach and reach. And sometimes that allows us to be less susceptible to the broader market, the broader market competitive forces in terms of, you know, going after a broader base of the marketplace. But it's competitive in balls. I'm not sure it's any more or less competitive than it's been in years prior. What we will watch given all this is what happens to pricing in the months ahead and really in q2 q3 when all the product that arrived in the market right the winners will will march forward and hold price and and others will maybe have to take some pricing action so um again i don't i don't see this as an extreme outlier year i see this as a typically competitive environment um and that's how that's how we're approaching things and and again uh data point of one month but but promotional activity seems to be um in check and normalized and at minimum uh no worse than what we saw a year ago great that's really helpful
um and then maybe just just one on on korea um yeah just i think the results were pretty strong during 4q but you kind of flagged that as as kind of a market that you were watching Just maybe any update there in terms of kind of the state of play on the ground and how you're thinking about that piece of the business.
Yeah, so Korea is a terrific market, right? Rounds up 20-some-odd, 22% since 2019. I think they were down 2% or 3% last year. They had some tough weather early, but it's a resilient, vibrant golf market, yet their consumer is under some duress. It has been for a little bit. And they've got some political unrest that just we're watching. As we think about Korea, I would characterize it this way. We're bullish on equipment, as we have been. A lot of our Korea commentary has been built around the wearable space. And that market went through a ride in the early 2020, 21, 22, some exponential growth in premium, super premium apparel. And we've seen a correction in that space. So as you know, we have a sizable apparel presence in Korea, our Titleist Apparel franchise. And that entire segment of premium apparel has been soft the last couple of years. So as we think about Korea, feel stronger about equipment than we do apparel. and it is an outsized apparel market just for the size of it. That said, we think another year of correction should put it back to a path of normalcy. But in terms of the dedicated golfer in that market, alive and well, and we're confident in their continued resilience, but there are some macro forces and really the outsized impact of wearables in that market And that's really been the root of our caution in the last couple of years and into 2025.
Thanks, Noah. And everybody, we appreciate your time and interest and attention on the call. Hope you have a great spring, and we look forward to catching up on our next call.
Operator
That concludes today's call. You may now disconnect your line.
