 | The verifiability of the claims made in this article is disputed.(February 2021) |
Founded by Joe Assell, Mike Clinton and Clayton Cole in 1995, GOLFTEC is a golf instruction and club fitting company headquartered in Denver, Colorado. With more than 200 retail locations worldwide, GOLFTEC teaches more than one million lessons annually. Currently, it has locations in the United States, Canada, China, Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
In 1995, the company's first location was opened in Denver under the name Driving Obsession. Two years later, it was re-branded as GOLFTEC (Technique, Equipment, Conditioning) and added two new locations in the Chicago area. Since then, GOLFTEC opened more than 200 centers worldwide and became one of the top employers of PGA of America Professionals, as well as a provider of golf club fittings. [1]
Currently GOLFTEC offers clubs from Callaway Golf, Mizuno, PING, TaylorMade Golf and Titleist.
In May 2018, Golf Digest Online (GDO), the largest online / offline golf conglomerate in Japan, expanded its partnership with GOLFTEC. [2]
The agreement centered on GDO's US entity, GDO Sports, Inc. acquiring majority interest in GOLFTEC with plans to merge the strengths of both companies to further grow the business globally. Existing GOLFTEC leadership remained in place.
Publicly traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and with 550 employees, GDO previously held a minority stake in GOLFTEC, operating 10 franchised training centers in Japan since opening its first in the upscale Roppongi district of Tokyo in 2012. [3]
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation is a Japanese multinational banking financial services institution owned by Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Inc. It is headquartered in Yurakucho, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The group operates in retail, corporate, and investment banking segment worldwide. It provides financial products and services to a wide range of clients, including individuals, small and medium-sized enterprises, large corporations, financial institutions and public sector entities. Since 2011, it has been included into the Financial Stability Board's list of global systemically important banks.
Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. Blackstone's private equity business has been one of the largest investors in leveraged buyouts in the last three decades, while its real estate business has actively acquired commercial real estate. Blackstone is also active in credit, infrastructure, hedge funds, insurance, secondaries, and growth equity. As of June 2023, the company's total assets under management were approximately US$1 trillion, making it the largest alternative investment firm globally.
Recruit is a human resources company headquartered in Japan. It was founded as "Daigaku Shimbun Koukokusha" in 1960 as an advertisement company that specialized in university newspapers. It owns the job search engine Indeed and the employer review site Glassdoor.
Avalon Interactive Group, Ltd. was a British video game distributor based within Europe that formerly traded as the video game publishing and distributing division of British conglomerate the Virgin Group.
Rakuten Group, Inc. is a Japanese technology conglomerate based in Tokyo, founded by Hiroshi Mikitani in 1997. Centered around the online retail marketplace Rakuten Ichiba, its businesses include financial services utilizing fintech, digital content and communications services such as the messaging app Viber, e-book distributor Kobo, and Japan's fourth mobile carrier Rakuten Mobile. Rakuten has more than 28,000 employees worldwide, operating in 30 countries and regions, and its revenues totalling US $12.8 billion as of 2021. Rakuten was the official sponsor of the Spanish football club FC Barcelona from 2017 until 2021, and the Golden State Warriors of the NBA as of 2022. It is often referred to as the "Amazon of Japan".
Godiva Chocolatier is a Belgian-based international chocolate maker which is owned by Turkish conglomerate Yıldız Holding.
Berlitz Corporation is a language education and leadership training company which is based in Princeton, New Jersey. The company was founded in 1878 by Maximilian Berlitz in Providence, Rhode Island in the United States. Berlitz Corporation is owned by Berlitz Holdings, a company established through a 100% investment by ILSC Holdings LP, with more than 547 company-owned and franchised locations in more than 70 countries.
ORIX Corporation, styled as ORIX, is a Japanese diversified financial services group headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, and Osaka, Japan.
Scotty Cameron is an American sports equipment brand established by Don T. "Scotty" Cameron, a golf club manufacturer primarily known for making putters. Scotty Cameron is part of the Acushnet Company brand portfolio since 2011, when the corporation acquired it from Fortune Brands.
Block Inc. is an American multinational technology conglomerate founded in 2009 by Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey and launched its first platform in 2010. It has been traded as a public company on the New York Stock Exchange since November 2015 with the ticker symbol SQ.
Golfsmith International Holdings Inc. was an American golf specialty retailer based in Austin, Texas. Each store, along with golfsmith.com, housed a wide selection of golf clubs, shoes, apparel, gadgets and gear from all the major brands as well as proprietary offerings. They also offered custom club fitting, lessons and services for golfers.
Hayleys PLC, founded in 1878, is a multinational and diversified conglomerate company in Sri Lanka with business spanning over 16 sectors, catering to 70 markets worldwide. Hayleys accounts for approximately 4.2% of Sri Lanka's export income, and 3.9% of the country's tea and 4.5% of its rubber production. With over 30,000 employees, Hayley was also the first listed entity in the country to surpass annual revenue of US$1 billion in Fiscal Year 2017/18. The company operates over 16 business sectors: eco-solutions, hand protection, purification, agriculture, consumer and retail, leisure, textile manufacturing, construction materials, plantations, industrial solutions, power and energy, transportation and logistics, BPO, tea exports, projects and engineering, and investments and services. Hayleys comprises over 130 business units and subsidiaries, nine of which are publicly listed in the Colombo Stock Exchange. In addition to Sri Lanka, Hayleys today has manufacturing facilities in Indonesia and Thailand and marketing operations in Australia, India, Bangladesh, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, UK and USA and its products are sold in 80 countries.
Rosetta Stone Learning Center is a chain of eikaiwa and French conversation schools in Japan.
Bic Camera, Inc. is a consumer electronics retailer chain in Japan. Currently, it has 41 stores in Japan. Bic Camera has a 50% ownership of former rival store Kojima and full ownership of computer store chain Sofmap.
Flying Tiger Copenhagen is a Danish variety store chain. Its first shop opened in Copenhagen in 1995 and the chain now has nearly 1000 shops. Its largest markets are Denmark, the UK, Italy, and Spain. Before June 2016, it operated as Tiger in most places, T·G·R in Sweden and Norway and Flying Tiger in Ireland, Japan, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The chain sells a variety of items, mostly accessories and toys. According to the company's founder, the company had about 39 million customers in 2014. Tiger takes its name from how the Danish pronunciation of the animal name tiger sounds roughly the same as the Danish word tier, used to denote a 10 kroner coin; in the first stores in Denmark, all items cost 10 kroner.Explanation needed for the "Flying" part of the name.
Trivago N.V., marketed with lowercase styling as trivago, is a German technology company specializing in internet-related services and products in the hotel, lodging and metasearch fields. The company is headquartered in Düsseldorf. The American online travel company Expedia Group owns a majority of the company's stock.
Copart, Inc. or simply Copart is a global provider of online vehicle auction and remarketing services to automotive resellers such as insurance, rental car, fleet and finance companies in 11 countries; the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, Ireland, Brazil, Spain, UAE, Bahrain, Oman and Finland. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Copart has more than 200 physical locations around the world, where it houses more than 10,000 acres of vehicle inventory. Copart sells used, wholesale and repairable vehicles in weekly and bi-weekly online auctions to buyers ranging from consumers to automotive businesses around the world. Copart provides vehicle sellers with a range of services to process and sell repairable and clean title vehicles over the internet, using its patented virtual auction technology, named VB3, as well as others of its auction-related brands.
Sand Hills Golf Club is a country club in Mullen, Nebraska. Notable for its remote location and minimalist design among the sandhills of Nebraska, it is consistently ranked among the top golf courses in the world and the best courses designed since 1960, notably being named #1 in Golfweek magazine's 2022 list of the "Top 200 Modern Courses", defined as courses built no earlier than 1960, in the United States. The golf course architecture website Golf Club Atlas called it "the most natural course built in the United States since World War I".
OnCore Golf Technology, Inc. is an American manufacturer of golf balls headquartered in Buffalo, New York.