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interesting......
An open letter to Van Staal owners
The news is now going out that somebody is buying Van Staal, which is good. But the buyer is somebody unexpected, namely Zebco. Now before you go hog wild speculating about what this marriage might create, let me tell you a little about who Zebco is today and why they’d be interested in Van Staal. As President of Zebco, I know the real story.
First you have to know that Zebco today is a very different company than in the past.
A couple years back Zebco was sold by Brunswick, which had owned it for 40 years. The sale provided the catalyst for change and a new management team took the helm setting course for a more diverse and advanced Zebco. Yes, we are still selling lots of beginner reels and combos. But we are also developing and selling new reels that you probably wouldn’t expect from Zebco.
Over the past few years we have been steadily developing and introducing more high performance reels under the Quantum brand name. Originally these were all freshwater reels, but this past July we introduced a saltwater line that will be at retail in Spring 2004. It’s light inshore boat gear. It’s designed for action. And it’s definitely not your typical Zebco reel.
Reaching this point has meant dramatically upgrading our engineering and R&D capabilities, and we have. We brought in a new guy to run Product Development with an aerospace background who started his career working on F-18 engines for General Electric. Over the last few years he’s built up his team and we’ve invested in the technical infrastructure (CAD systems, model shops, test labs, etc) necessary to design and build world-class reels.
So what will we do with VS? First, we won’t screw it up. (We have no plans to change or cheapen or cut corners on any VS product.) Second, we’ll stand behind the product. And third we’ll provide a stable, well-funded home for Van Staal in an established fishing company.
Short term we’ll be working with Reel Ventures to build and service product at their Hopedale facility. Then we will begin to transition the operation to our facility in Tulsa, which happens to be home to a lot of aircraft/aerospace business and the kind of precision machining these products require. Here in Tulsa we will be setting up a separate business unit to focus on Van Staal and nothing else.
Transitioning will take some time and your ongoing patience is appreciated. But make no mistake, the future of Van Staal is very, very bright. We are excited to include this legendary line of products in our family and we are committed to giving the Van Staal brand the kind of home it needs to flourish and grow. Truth be told, we’re also pretty stoked about heading east to fish these reels in the waters and among the anglers that made them famous.
Jeff Pontius
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