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Our approach to merchandise

A few members have asked us well intended questions about how much money we make from specific items of merchandise. We’d love to share this as we’ve nothing to hide, but because the suppliers we work with have other customers to consider, it’s important we respect their requirement for confidentiality. 

However, we thought it might be useful to give an idea as to how we approached some of the commercial deals we’ve struck. We will use replica shirt sales as a specific example.

Margin isn’t everything

One obvious approach is to buy kit at the lowest possible price and sell it at the highest price you think you can get away with. We’ve seen plenty of low quality kits sold over the years, and we felt Bury fans had seen enough of them.

Opportunity to make a statement

Our first kit was an opportunity to show our identity. We had offers from plenty of huge, international brands who wanted to work with us but the kit would have looked like many others with just the colours changed. We were attracted by the idea of a bespoke kit and it offered us a chance to engage fans and involve them in the design. This meant we were never going to keep the cost of the kit as low as it could be, as bespoke kits cost more money.

We want and need to reward fans

As a fan-owned team it might sound obvious that we wanted to keep the price of the shirt reasonable, change them every two seasons, not every season, and offer a wide range of sizes and options. However, there is a commercial advantage to this. The approach described above resulted in huge sales for a new team at our level of football, 1800 shirts at the time of writing which should exceed 2000 during the season. This is more than some professional clubs. By sacrificing margin, we drove far greater sales than expected and have comfortably exceeded our revenue targets for the season. The financial impact goes well beyond shirt sales alone. Fans proudly wearing their shirts in public and posting images of them on social media are walking adverts for the club. This advocacy has helped drive up memberships and brought in more sponsors. We do not employ anyone in our commercial team, they are all volunteers, but in reality it is the noisy advocacy of our own fans which is driving the club’s finances forward as it impacts on all areas of the club.

Covid had its say

We used a formal, written tender process which was reviewed by several people, before selecting Hope and Glory. All of the issues above were questioned at the time to ensure we struck the right balance between cost and quality.

We were in lockdown when we started this process and as we commissioned the final shirts. We were unable to meet face-to-face with suppliers and it was apparent we would have to revert to online sales only and post, rather than pre-purchase stock to sell at the ground. With no historic sales data to rely on, this was probably a sensible approach anyway, and it allowed us to offer a far wider range of sizes and options. Had we been forced to consider minimum order quantities, we would have been exposed to more financial risk which might have resulted in offering less choice.

The main downside has been that with Covid impacting on manufacturing processes, fulfilment of such large order volumes has been slow and we know some fans have been frustrated with the time taken to receive their kit. We apologise for this and will consider what we can do to make improvements in future years.

It’s working for everyone

Premier League football clubs harvest money from existing supporters by trading off their existing brand and supporter loyalty and charging £60-70 per shirt. We have built a club with a national media profile by rewarding rather than ripping off fans and we believe it has worked for everyone. We have held true to our values as a community club putting supporters at the heart of it, and it has worked for us commercially.

We will be issuing our first set of management accounts shortly which will show every penny we make and spend by category but doesn’t detail every individual commercial arrangement we have. We hope this note helps explain how we are not simply focussing on the maximum margin on every product. We are thinking about the long-term future of the club. The good news is that our interests and those of our fans are completely aligned. Not just because we are fans ourselves, but because we are entirely dependent on you to drive Bury AFC on.

It’s one reason we are asking you for your own input to future merchandise ideas, and you can read about how to get involved in that here.

6 thoughts on “Our approach to merchandise

  1. Patricia Lowe

    Thanks for being open and honest makes for a good read. It’s great to be kept up to date with all what’s happening.

  2. Bob McPherson

    So refreshing to read this. If this openness is maintained in all aspects of running the club, Bury AFC will surely flourish.

  3. Mikkey55

    What great set up you have just watched your documentary on BBC what an inspiration you are from top to bottom you and your family have reached out to true football fans as a life long Liverpool fan Bury AFC are now my second team we forget the hard journey to reach to the top because of commercialisium has blinded the true meaning football = fans simple we all love football no matter what as a true christian you should know I will be praying for you to do well. As well as supporting you so God’s on your side seriously God bless you all and your families at this hard time keep up the good work and most importantly enjoy the football Peace

  4. Tony Tremayne

    I’ve been blown away by the transparency of the clubs dealings. I’ve been a supporter of Bury since 1957. For the first time in 63 years I truly feel part of something special. Thank you.

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