I wonder if Fenwick helped or hurt it's overall business by not selling blanks to custom rod builders? Do they sell more factory rods because of it? Ed

One thing for sure, they used to be a big player in the fly rod market and now they are almost non-existant.

FENWICK WEBSITE 2003
[www.fenwickfishing.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/07/2006 02:06PM by Cliff Hall.

That's not why they stopped selling blanks. When Fenwick was purchased by OTG in the early 90's, blanks sales only made up about 3% of their total sales figures. They said they couldn't justify continuing the blank program unless those sales were closer to 7% to 10%. They didn't want to bother with increased marketing and advertising to beef up those sales so they just dumped the blank program. Most companies that sell blanks and finished rods only do a small portion of their business in blanks. With a company as huge as OTG, 3% of the Fenwick portion just wan't enough to bother with.

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If blanks are such a small part of the overall picture, it might not make any difference to compnay profits. But, when I started fly fishing in the mid-80s I bought Fenwicks. Then when I got into rodbuilding in '99, I bought St. Croix because Fenwick did not sell blanks. I wanted to build myself custom Fenwicks for sentimental reasons. If St. Croix stopped selling blanks, they would lose me as a customer too since I have no reason to buy a finished rod. Here's hoping the folks in Park Falls remain autonomous and don't get snapped up by a mega sporting goods company. Although, these days it seems like that is just a matter of time for almost all small businesses.

Fenwick's sales have improved in recent years. They sell many more rods now than they did 20 years ago. St.Croix would only stop selling blanks if the percentage required to make it worthwhile were to fall below a level that they feel is worthwhile. And if that happens they might lose a few rod builders are customers but you can bet that overall they wouldn't miss it much. Custom rod building makes up a terribly tiny part of the overall rod business.

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Sales may be up..........but they have lost their niche IMO.
You will now notice their product at Wal-mart...........I think that probably has something to do with sales being up. Most people do not buy high end rods.....most people have a fishing rod somewhere in the garage/attic whether they use it much or not. From being in the tackle retail industry in the past my own observation is if you want a lot of sales make sure you have plenty of the low to mid end product.

Fenwick was the top of the heap at one time...an innovator. Once Outdoor Technologies (Berkeley,Abu Garcia, etc) bought them. They stopped moving forward with R & D. Most of the avid fishermen who were using their product have gone on to use other products. I think they have lost their share of the high end market that was once their bread & butter.

I would love to be able to buy some of their blanks.....I would really like to build a couple Fen Glass fly rods....who knows maybe the number crunchers will see some value in in somewhere down the line?

Wow! Only 3% of the total business! Can't really blame them for dumping the program. Ed

I still have 3 UL I built in the earl 80's with Foulproof guides so they looked like the factory rods and
found 2 12' noodle blanks a couple years ago built one for a good friend and hope to get time for mine.
Steve