Dynacast, among the nation's largest golf club assemblers in 1980s south of Adelaide, enjoys sport's revival
Dynacast Golf founder Eric Rowe with his managing director son Daniel, and the quality brand of golf clubs their company assembled.
Dynacast Golf, one of Australia's biggest entry-level golf club brands in the 1980s and 1990s, enjoyed a Covid-19-induced golf boom 2020 revival at its Lonsdale base, south of Adelaide.
At its height, Dynacast produced about 250,000 clubs a year and employed 15 full-time staff to assemble them under managing director Eric Rowe. Dynacast’s origin was a small golf shop called Yankalilla Golf Factory that Rowe took over in 1983.
During moves to Mount Compass and then McLaren Vale, the name was changed to Dynacast Golf Factory, with Dynacast established as a quality brand and the Australian distributorship gained for Daiwa, along with numerous customer brand names.
Home brands at major chain stores such as Drummond Golf and House of Golf, coupled with cheap imports and a decline in Australian golf payers, forced Dynacast to diversify. It became the Australian wholesaler and distributor for Garmin Golf GPS devices in 2011, a distributor for KBS golf shafts in 2012 and an assembly centre and distributor for Bridgestone Golf in 2014. It was the only place outside of Japan and the United States to assemble Bridgestone clubs for the Australian and New Zealand markets. Its golf balls, which are distributed by Dynacast, were among the biggest sellers.
After another move to Londsale in 2006, Dynacast continued to produce its own brands from imported components but this was reduced to about 50,000 clubs a year. The strength of assembling in Australia was the ability to customise products more easily but it was competing with much cheaper costs in China.
Eric Rowe continued to be involved in the running of the business although son Daniel, having been in and around the business since he was six, took over as marketing and development manager in 2003 and later general manager.
With golf courses staying open in South Australia and in most states throughout the 2020 coronavirus lockdowns, Dynacast benefitted from a resurgence in social players returning to the sport. Dynacast also had another stroke of luck as a specialist in the niche area of mini golf, supplying putters and other equipment to courses around Australia. Although it only accounted for a small part of Dynacast’s business, the popularity of mini golf was also on the rise, partly fuelled by the popularity of television show Holey Moley.
