What About Orlimar?
While Jesse Ortiz is on the comeback, the company he left is doing
the same. After buying Orlimar in 2003,
Flushing,
Michigan-based King
Par is
re-making
it.
“Some people are not aware that it’s been bought out or moved from
California,” says Stephen Graham, King Par’s
vice
president of
marketing and
tour
operations. “Orlimar
is simply a brand
name. There
essentially is no
Orlimar Golf Company. But if
they call it Orlimar or
Orlimar Golf Company we’ll
certainly
let it lie.”
That’s because the rights to the name is the primary reason King
Par bought the company, which no longer has any ties to the Ortiz
family.
(Ortiz’ father, Lou, started Orlimar in 1960; the name
comes
from the first
letters of Ortiz and
his two
original
partners, Pedro
Liendo and Emilio
Martinez.)
King Par owns brands like Affinity and Intech, entry-level clubs
sold primarily through high-volume retailers like Wal-Mart. Acquiring
Orlimar
has given King Par access to a more upscale market,
composed of
more serious
golfers. With Orlimar, King
Par is
targeting green-grass
and off-course
specialty
shops.
In the past several months, Orlimar has introduced five lines. The
Fury is for better players. ZX is a
game-improvement
line
designed to
help
golfers fight the slice. It has
a driver with
a face
that is six
degrees closed;
the
hybrids’ faces are
four
degrees closed. Orlimar
also has lines
for
juniors,
women and
seniors.
King Par is promoting Orlimar with a limited television campaign
and print ads in consumer and trade publications. But there won’t be an
infomercial like the one that brought
TriMetal to
prominence.
King Par
used one
for six months in 2005
to tell golfers
Orlimar was
back, and
with the brand now
re-established,
Graham
says a new infomercial is
unnecessary.
Even without the infomercial, the new-look Orlimar hasn’t
forgotten the company’s past. “It’s unfortunate what happened with
them, pushing
so hard to go public that they just got upside
down,”
Graham says. “There’s that
little element in
you that
you want to cheer
for the family business
guy and you
want him
to make it. He’s competing
against large
corporate giants and it’s just
so tough.
“We knew it would take three to five years to get Orlimar going again and to
come up with a product line worthy enough of replacing the success that
Jesse
and the gang had with the TriMetal.
You always
carry the
element
with you in
terms of coming out
with a product that’s
worthy of
the
Orlimar name.”
