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Location: Rhinelander | Abu Garcia, a Swedish reel builder well known for the Abu brand of casting and spinning reels, reportedly announced today that 25 additional employees will be laid off in large part because of a reduction of fishing department facing and a new 'storage' policy adopted by US based Mega- Retailer, Wal Mart.
31 employees were laid off earlier this year due to a restructuring from a reported work force of under 200.
It was estimated that Wal Mart sells more Abu product than is sold in Sweden and perhaps even the core market in Europe. WalleyeFIRST is searching for the press release (it's in Swedish) and will post it if we can find a version in English. A regular visitor to the MuskieFIRST forums sent us this report via instant messenger from Europe this morning. |
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Location: Manitowoc, WI | Steve, I will try and send you a link I once found that will automatically translate your document in English. Hope I can find it. |
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| Some of Walmart's new inventory stratagies will make it tougher for some manufactures to survive. I wonder if Abu-Garcia was a victim of this, or if this is Abu-Garcia just blameing a larger corporation for it's problems? |
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Location: Forest Lake, MN | If you do some looking around you'll find this isn't an uncommon event with companies doing business with WalMart. Rubbermaid found out the hard way.
WarrenMN |
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| Rubbermaid found out the hard way.
As did Vlasic Pickles. |
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Location: Oklahoma | I personally have noticed a LARGE reduction of shelf space for ALL fishing related products in my area Wal*Mart stores. I have seen pegs of crankbaits (of special interest to me) as an example, shrink from an entire section or an aisle apprx 24' long of just cranks and spinners to a mere 13 columns ONLY. This inculdes top brands such as Rapala, Pradco products, Rattle Trap who used to have over 15 columns all to itself, (Rapala's has shrunk to 2 columns, Storm to 6 pegs only) and a few other locally favorite bass brands.
Being in the crankbait business over many years and my dad's business having been a rather large Wal*Mart seller, it was then and is now a very risky business decision to do business with Wal*Mart. Many companies sole reason for existing was controlled by Wal*Mart as we all know, and if they happen to cut you.....DOWN YOU GO.
The shrinkage factor is defintely having an impact on even the largest manufactuers of fishing related products. As far as I can tell, Wal*Mart is re-focussing their store selections and trying to manage their inventory/costs in a market that is very seasonal and hard to manage. No retail store including Wal*Mart wants to tie up valuable retail shelf space with fishing products that are out of season. Leaving cranks up year round is probably biting them in the butt during the "off season" and, quite frankly, they make more money on hunting goods and general camping equipment than fishing goods. Their profit margins on lower cost fishing goods cannot compete with the higher margins of hunting goods such as guns, archery, and other higher cost sports.
It has not gone unnoticed that the fishing departments are being shrunk nation-wide. Look at Target for example...they used to have a rather large fishing department as did K-Mart....shrunk over the years until they did not exist at all. Rapala tried the Target idea again recently, but, in my area at least, it has been cut by two-thirds and is virtually non-existant again.
Scary. I never thought I would see it happen, myself. Most of my Wal*Mart stores fishing lure section is now loaded only with low-cost soft plastics.....higher profits for them and the manufacturers...cutting more expensive hardbaits etc....
Too bad. I hate to see it, but, it is happening. I just hope another retail outlet is able to profitably stock the fishing products that the consumers want for their fishing markets. Hopefully, Bass Pro Shops, Cabels's, Sportsman's Warehouse and Dick's, Gander etc. can take up what Wal*mart is losing.
Just my perspective. Interesting topic. |
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Location: Waukesha Wisconsin | Dave,
I think that you hit the cause and the solution square on the head.
I do not believe that the fishermen are cutting back and buying fewer fishing related items like crankbaits. I believe that Bass Pro Shops, Cabels's, Sportsman's Warehouse and Gander will take up what Walmart is losing.
This may be just another sign of specialization. Let those who do it best..... continue to make money and sell the right product.
I'm not sure what is was like across the country but in my area, I never went out of my way to buy fishing gear at their store. The sellection was always poor at best and most items were extermely cheap (poor quality). It was just a place to look for a good fishing deal when shopping for household items.
Now, if Fleet Farm stopped selling or cut back on fishing items ............ You'd hear a lot of people crying in the Midwest. |
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| Most deffinately Dennis, I have 2 Gander Mountains, Sportsmans Warehouse, Scheels, 2 Dicks, 2 Fleet Farms within 30 minutes along with multiple places like Tews, Sportsmans, Ma's Bait and Tackle and many more. I prefer Fleet Farm / Gander / Sportsmans before season and will use Cabelas off season for hard tackle. Wally World was really the place for sinkers or terminal tackle for the youngsters. or the place to stop and grab the crawlers at 4:00am as MY catching skills for those have not escalated as some of you guys!
As compainies like Walmart strive for thinks like cost reduction through stocking programs and RFID solutions to name a few it is inevitable that people will move to other ways to get what they want.
Good Luck
Tyee |
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Location: Rhinelander | I agree with Sunshine, I'd be unhappy if Fleet cut way back. DOn't have Gander or Cabellas up here close, so I don't get there much. Did buy my new .270WSM at a Gander last winter though. |
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| As an avid Abu-Garcia fan, I recomend paying the extra few dollars it costs to shop elsewhere. Wal-Warts anti labor practices should encourage all of us to shop elsewhere. |
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Location: Oshkosh, Wisconsin | Why would anyone buy something at Wal-mart they could get elsewhere? |
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| The only reason to go to Wal-Mart is to check out the "big" chicks stuffed into the small spandex. 
LOL! |
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Location: Rhinelander | Like it or not, Wal Mart is a major retailer and is major for a simple reason; they SELL alot of stuff. I'm a bit surprised at the reduction of the fishing tackle department facing, but as has already been said, other sources will carry the products. If they cost a couple bucks more and the builder is not at so high a risk with the all-the-apples-in-one-basket scenario, then everone wins anyway. |
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| Do not forget that ABU Garcia is owned by Pure Fishing aka Berkley. Their layoffs did not come from Wal Mart they came from Berkley. Wal-Mart may be the excuse or the reason. |
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Location: Fremont, Wisconsin | Business greed. That is why any manufacturer would choose to have the bulk of there manufacturered product go to a clearance house. Its the lure of easy and steady money. But, it is financial roulette. Unless you are the one that bails out first, not the clearance house, you will be destined to being ruled by said clearance house. |
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Location: Rhinelander | The press release was from Sweden, and the layoffs in the facory there. The sole reason mentioned was the Wal Mart fishing department restructuring, and figures on sales in Europe, the US, and then JUST Wal Mart were quoted. The reason these folks were laid off was a reduced buy from Wal Mart, palin and simple.
Of course the parent company makes the decision to lay off in a down market, but Wal Mart was the reason according to this source. |
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Location: upper michigan | well other than a couple SMALL mom and pop shops here the only reel choice for sporting goods is wal mart or k mart otherwise its at least an hopur and a half drive to marquett mi and 2 hours to green bay or an hour to escanaba wich still has a limited selection as compared to the big stores in green bay.
Edited by butch 9/29/2006 6:19 PM
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Location: Waukesha Wisconsin | Thanks for the insight Butch. I guess many of us take it for granted that we have many more options on where we spend our money. If you are in a real rural area like Butch, you go to the closest convenient place. I assume that you do a lot of buying on line then and get small items locally?
Stacker,
The lure of easy and steady money is what drives corporate America. We may not like (and I don't) the Wal-Mart business plan but unfortunately they use a model that is idolized and copied by many other big corporations. They are not that different than others just BIGGER and they choose to gobble up the competition and buy suppliers. If ABU Garcia is greedy for wanting to do business with Wall-Mart than almost all companies can be classified as greedy.
I believe that Dave and other small manufacturers could give all of us a real education about the fishing related industry. It takes a great deal more than just having a good product to survive. Many of us are unaware of the types of demands or costs associated with doing business with big companies. It takes major hurdles to get into fishing catalogs let alone the Wal-Marts of the world.
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Location: upper michigan | There are items that I can't buy locally no one carries them. It is not posible to buy flourocarbon leader material I have to either travel or order it online. Crank bait selections are limited at best you can buy only the basics as far as color goes. Crawler harness blades I buy mostly from bay view bait and tackle near gladstone on bay de noc they have a good selection I will also buy from the bait shop at the Kipling launch. Other wise I will try to stop at fleet farm , Gander Or sportsmans while in green bay. |
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Location: Fremont, Wisconsin | Sunshine - 9/30/2006 6:54 AM
Stacker,
The lure of easy and steady money is what drives corporate America. We may not like (and I don't) the Wal-Mart business plan but unfortunately they use a model that is idolized and copied by many other big corporations. They are not that different than others just BIGGER and they choose to gobble up the competition and buy suppliers. If ABU Garcia is greedy for wanting to do business with Wall-Mart than almost all companies can be classified as greedy.
Sunshine
As far as other business' idolizing the walmart business plan, well, that is not the point. Like it or not, that is there plan. The point is, when a manufacturer builds a product and relies on ONE retail outlet for the bulk of the product to be sold, they are not controlling there destiney. The owner of the retail outlet is. They are building there business on the premise that they will be supplying widgets to abc company for ever and ever. The employees are borrowing money on the premise that there jobs are secure. The balanced business will diversify so there is not a chance of bankruptcy or a major loss of jobs in said community because the main corridor in which the product gets to the public has been broken. A business has more than themselves to look out for.
Now, if walmart backed out on a contract, shame on them. If the swedish builder wrote more in to the contract than what was there, hired more people for the eventual fall, shame on him. They also may have hired extra people to supply this new account and the employee's were told that there jobs may come to an end abruptly if the contract was lost. However, I am sure there news sources would not report that because they thrive on the negative of anything.
As far as your statement that "lure of easy and steady money is what drives corporate america." Sorry Dennis but I am not quite sure what you mean by that.
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Location: Waukesha Wisconsin | Stacker,
I agree with everything that you said. We are in 100% agreement. The quote: "the lure of easy and steady money", came from you. My only point was the fact that all companies hope to get "easy and steady money". |
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Location: Forest Lake, MN | One odd thing I saw the other day in the Home Depot here in Forest Lake, they have a fishing isle now with Rapala's and some other stuff.
WarrenMN
Edited by WarrenMN 9/30/2006 8:27 PM
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| i notice any big department store has cheap stuff at best. i also notice that the only big selection any of them have is rapala lures. is this the department heads call or upper management? or does rapala have some sort of agreement with all of them? |
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Location: Oklahoma | I would imagine that many manufacturers of fishing-related products such as myself will be looking to ANY outlet that may be a "fresh" source to sell your product. And, one that may be willing to "buy-in" to a corporate's selling strategy that the new outlet (Home Depot among others) will be a profitable one. I am sure that the strategy here is that Home Depot (which has a HUGE number of retail stores) would be a very nice replacement/addition to Wal*Mart sales. My understanding of all this is that if a manufactuer is not willing to consistently search for as many outlets to reach consumers, then they will find their wholesale customer base so limited that if one or two pulls out, then you are left with nothing, ie: Wal*Mart.
It may seem strange to see a Rapala display in a Home Depot, but, frankly, if a company with the name-recognition such as Rapala presents a package deal to a large chain retailer that it can seem as a good probability that the product will move, especially if that retailer markets mainly to males. Target stores was a "Target" for Rapala last season, which in my opinon primarily markets to women, and that may have contributed to the shrinkage of the fishing lure dept this year.
I am sure that manufactuers are always looking to gain an edge over the competition, and to get their products into as many retail chain stores as they can. It very well could be that the trend of Wal*Mart's down-sizing is causing us to look for other large chains to carry our goods. What remains to be seen is that whether a consumer who goes to a hardware store to buy power tools or light bulbs or appliances and lumber will also find a fishing lure an irresistible purchase to toss in his cart. Next, you may find fishing lures for sale at your local hair salon or barber shop! I have a barber shop in my city that sells basketballs and footballs and other sporting equipment...why not add a fishing lure to go along with your new haircut? It's only another $5-$7???!
Dave  |
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| As Dennis has said, I never really noticed any kind of a selection at Wall Mart. I can honestly say thet the ONLY fishing related thing I have bought at Wall Mart is a license when in Ill, or Iowa. Most of the lures sold in the SW Milwaukee Wall Mart were bass lures. I can't say I ever saw a Rapala or Storm lure there. As for reels, I don't think I even noticed anything more than Snoopy rod/reel packages sold there. If I ever needed an emoergency fishing item, I certainly wouldn't rush off to a Wall Mart.
To this end, I am quite surprised by the reduction in Wall Mart stocking as a reason to layoff workers. Over 50% of my tackle is bought at Gander, and Fleet Farm. The rest is bought at the locals, like Tews, Bob's (when it was open), and The Sporstman. Maybe I should have had my eyes opened wider, but I never considered Wall Mart to have much of what I wanted or needed, in the way of outdoor goods.
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