We have been lucky enough to spend some time with Pierre-Luc Laparé, the CEO of Golfbidder. His brand is one of Europe’s leading online retailers for pre-owned golf equipment, offering a wide selection of high-quality clubs from top brands such as Callaway, Titleist, and TaylorMade. Hearing about his ambitions for the sport was fantastic and you can see why the brand is going from strength to strength.
Originally established in 1997 as a small golf shop, Golfbidder.co.uk has since grown into a trusted platform for both buying and selling golf clubs. Each club listed is inspected, photographed, and comes with a 12-month warranty, ensuring peace of mind for customers.
Under the leadership of CEO Pierre-Luc Laparé, Golfbidder is now part of the Laps group, which champions sustainability and aims to extend the lifecycle of products. The company’s innovative model not only helps golfers access top-tier clubs at affordable prices but also promotes responsible consumption by reducing waste.
Golfbidder’s commitment to customer satisfaction is reflected in its hassle-free buying experience, including a seven-day trial period for used clubs. Having the chance to chat to Pierre about his day was a real eye-opener into how a such a growth brand in the golf industry operates. We love learning about the trivia behind such a success story, such as what he has for breakfast.
GOLFTIMES: What time do you wake up when you’re working for Golfbidder?
Pierre-Luc Laparé: 6.30am typically.
What would you have for breakfast?
Often, I just have a coffee but sometimes alongside my kids (aged four and one) and my wife, we have a meal (eggs, oatmeal, it depends!)
What does the rest of your morning routine look like?
It depends if I’m dropping the kids off! If I’m not, I’ll shower and go straight to work where I’ll then have a coffee and take advantage of the fact that I can start earlier. If I’m dropping the kids off, it tends to be around 8:00-8:15 so I’ll get to the office between 8.30-8.45 and then I’ll start.
What would be the first thing you do when you get to the office?
It’s a very bad habit but because we work across a few different time zones, the first thing I do when I wake up is look at my emails. We have daily reports of sales that come through at midnight, so I’ll look at emails and for anything outstanding, as well as our daily sales and then I’ll start my day. It means that by the time I get to the office, I’ll know if there’s any urgent matter or not. If I don’t have anything pressing or a meeting to attend to, I’ll spend time speaking to people that are in the office.
How will you plan your day’s work?
I try to keep lists of things I need to get done so there are always priorities to tackle. I try put some time in to brainstorm ideas with my team or on my own but otherwise my day tends to look like meetings and calls. I am quite involved with procurement and marketing. Abundance of the inventory and making sure we offer the best experience to golfers are key for our business.
Would you say that with Golfbidder, you’ve adapted to working remotely or in-office?
We have a hybrid system – I prefer to be in the office but I think the hybrid system works well. We have offices in Montreal, Chessington (In the UK) and in Calais (North of France). The office in Montreal is a bit outside the city centre so depending on meetings I have, working from home can be useful. Saying that, my preference is being in the office as it is more collaborative.
What do you do for lunch typically?
The way we’ve built the office – we have a big kitchen space where the team have lunch. We encourage people to take lunch together and catch up over things that aren’t related to work. Having fun together and bonding as a team is key to success so we encourage that!
How many people are working at Golfbidder?
We have just over 100 employees in total across Montreal, Chessington and Calais.
When does your working day finish?
It depends on the kids and work dinners but usually I’ll try to be home by 6pm to have dinner with the family. I try and keep it light in the evening and switch off a bit.
How do you switch off?
Well firstly I would say having kids forces you to switch off which is amazing. You can imagine that being in this kind of business, actually playing golf is another fun way to switch off – I try to play once a week now. All year round I also like being in the outdoors, so mountain-biking or skiing.
What’s the best advice you’ve been given in business?
Number 1: Surround yourself with the best team you can. Number 2: Optionality is key. There’s always a solution if you put yourself in a position of optionality!
What are your main objectives as the CEO of Golfbidder?
We’re all about helping golfers play better in an affordable way. For me, that’s helping golfers have fun on the course, not breaking the bank and making sure that money goes further in equipment to help enable people to play more rounds. That is the whole purpose of Golfbidder.
What would you say are biggest challenges facing Golfbidder in the current market?
Covid and Brexit brought a few challenges – initially Covid brought a great boom to the golf industry which is great but initially it made the supply side of the business more difficult. We found solutions (thanks to optionality!) and are benefitting now from the golf boom. Brexit also forced us to adapt our systems and open a warehouse in France to serve European customers. Now that this is behind us, we’re glad we did and we’re growing quickly in Europe.
Are you planning on expanding further internationally?
At the moment and with our current offering, I feel like we cover about ¾ of the global golf market. What I tell people in the office is I don’t think there’s a need to expand geographically, we just need to ensure that whatever we’re doing, we keep helping more golfers.
How do you think social media has had an impact on golf?
We are quite lucky – we have worked with great influencers over the last few years. Peter Finch & Rick Shiels being two great examples and more recently with Golf Life and Coupleagolfers. Golf has had a huge boom in social media over the last few years and it’s great for the game. It’s all about getting more people out playing golf and I feel like Golfbidder is a perfect fit to help people start playing golf and again, I go back to people not having to break the bank. We know it is a game that can get quite expensive but we’re here to help golfers access the sport. So for me, social media’s been positive – whether that’s instructors posting tips, or groups having a drink while playing golf, it reaches all different types of audiences and it’s showing that golf is fun.
Where would you want to see Golfbidder in 5-10 years?
We push hard to provide an amazing experience to golfers because they deserve to have the right equipment in the bag at the right price. This can be broken down in 4 pillars we want to keep pushing.
1. Affordability – Same quality while being much cheaper than new!
2. Abundance – We have tens of thousands of clubs in inventory. We’ll find a good fit for your game
3. Trust – We sell high quality clubs and we stand by each and everyone we sell. To back it up, we offer a 12-month warranty!
4. Expertise – We’re here to help. Our PGA professionals are always available for advice because playing the right clubs at the right price makes golf much more fun!
Thanks to Pierre-Luc Laparé for taking the time to speak to GolfTimes.
