New boss tees off at American Golf after bumper year

EXPERIENCED retailer Kevin Styles, most recently chief executive of furniture group Habitat, has been appointed as the new boss of American Golf.

His appointment was announced as the Warrington-based group published annual accounts for the year to Janaury 29 showing booming sales and profits.

Mr Styles, who is a former UK marketing director of Best Buy and an executive with B&Q owner Kingfisher – replaces Nick Wood, who was recruited to lead Pets at Home after the departure of Matt Davies earlier this year.

Results for AGDC Holdings, the parent company of the 90-store group, which also has a strong online offer, show underlying earrnings leapt from £4.9m to £8.8m as sales surged from £86.5m to £108.1m.

At the bottom line, the group made a profit of £2.7m, compared with a loss of £1.5m in 2011.

Ownership of American Golf changed late last year as US private equity firm Sun Capital Partners replaced LDC as majority shareholder.

Mr Styles will oversee American Golf’s domestic and European expansion -it 
expects to open around eight new stores per annum in the UK, mostly in the South East, and it is also looking at launching in France, Germany and Sweden.

He said: “I’m very excited to be leading the next stage of growth at American Golf. This is a fantastic business with fantastic people unified by one purpose – to help improve people’s game.

“We have a unique position as Europe’s leading specialist multi-channel retailer in a global and growing sport. Our model, which combines superior product knowledge, first-class execution and unbeatable value, has continued to deliver strong like for like sales this year despite a challenging retail climate.

“With the backing of Sun European Partners and a loyal customer base, we’re ideally placed to capture further market share in Europe as we extend our footprint and continue to make significant investments in our digital business.”

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