But not in the way you might expect.
Precept is the golf brand of Bridgestone Sports USA, the Covington, Ga.-based unit of Bridgestone Sports. The parent is a $365 million-per-year, multi-sport company into everything involving the intersection of rubber and sporting goods. Bridgestone Sports is itself a unit of the legendary Japanese company Bridgestone Corp., which garners its $19 billion in annual sales from a wide variety of industrial and consumer goods, including tires for all kinds of vehicles.
Shojiro Ishibashi (in Japanese, ishi means stone and bashi means bridge) founded Bridgestone in 1931 with the broad mission of improving life by making products people want and need. The company began making golf balls in 1935, and produced its one-millionth golf club in 1981. Although its primary golf market has been Japan, where the brand is a byword, Bridgestone got a foothold in the United States when it opened an office in the Atlanta area in 1985. Golf ball manufacturing started in Covington in 1990.
With its own label, Precept has amassed a respectable market share and by all indications, a loyal following, even if it has not threatened the market leaders yet. Precepts U.S. share is about eight percent, say company sources, quoting industry metrics leader Golf Datatech. (Titleist has about 46 percent; Spalding has 20, says Precept.) In a category of its own making, premium balls costing more than $20 per dozen, Precept claims 12 percent of the market.
