it was my understanding that St. Croix acquired full ownership of Rodgeeks and Axiom buying out the Penikas sometime around April of this year.. So they may very well now hold the Mexico facility through that buy out..

That would make sense...



Here is the new sales pitch along with some backstory on rodgeeks...


Leaving China SubContracting Behind

More and more companies are realizing that the disadvantages of contract manufacturing in China outweigh the strengths. Many are taking back control and producing on their own to stay competitive, as two successes in this case study illustrate. For nearly seven decades, US-based St. Croix Rods set the standard for making some of the world’s highest-quality fishing rods on the market. Consumers loved their products and a quick glance at the company’s social media accounts showed loyalty and appreciation for the company’s commitment to quality.

Fishing rods have a low barrier to entry and as a growing number of lower-cost competitors entered the market, the company decided to shift production of one of its product lines to a contract manufacturer in China, as a cost-cutting measure.

Like nearly any company over the past 30 years that employs labor-intensive production, St. Croix thought it had found a competitive solution in China. Labor was abundant and cheap, and with a subcontractor, the company didn’t need to make any capital investment.

However, the company’s leadership soon realized that a combination of factors — even before the US/China tariff war came into play — made China subcontracting less attractive than it had been. They realized they needed an alternative.

Case Study 1

Why China Subcontracting In The First Place?

Manufacturers were traditionally drawn to China by low landed costs and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of labor. As more companies added a manufacturing footprint in the country, China’s supply chain infrastructure improved as well, to keep up with demand.

For a time, subcontracting in China worked well for St. Croix. The company cut costs for the product line, enabling it to compete with lower-priced competitors. But then, the company began experiencing issues in China.
There were frequent quality concerns with the product, which had to be shipped in bulk from Asia to the US, full of containers holding as many as 15,000 fishing rods each. Supply chain delays were also common, as the product had to spend 30-40 days on the water before entering ports and being delivered by ground in the US.

Intellectual property theft was also a concern, as there are few safeguards to prevent a contract manufacturer in China from sharing trade secrets with their other customers. St. Croix’s leadership decided to make the move away from China subcontracting, so they brought in Bob Penicka, former COO of Callaway Golf, to explore alternative manufacturing scenarios that would not destroy the company’s pricing model while enabling it to assume full control of production. Bob referred to the subcontractor as “a constant source of frustration” for the company. But the question was, could St. Croix produce on its own closer to home, yet still compete with China on price?

Quality Control Close to Home

In recent years, contract manufacturing in China has lost its luster. A growing number of companies are shifting to producing on their own closer to their customer base, making them more responsive to consumer trends and shortening delivery times. In some cases, that may mean establishing one or more regional production locations around the world.

For St. Croix, regionalization meant setting up its own production in North America, gaining complete control in the process. The company is now fully responsible for manufacturing and quality control, it shortened product delivery times, no longer had to worry about the safety of its intellectual property and was not affected later when the US/ China tariff war heated up.

Benefits of Taking Back Production

Companies like St. Croix that shift away from China subcontracting in favor of producing their own goods gain many benefits, including:

Diversification: A regionally diverse manufacturing base keeps issues in any one region from overly affecting production. Companies with sole reliance on production in China, for instance, are dealing with a lot more uncertainty due to the ongoing US/China tariff war.

Quality control: The company retains full responsibility for product quality, versus a contract manufacturer whose name isn’t on the product at all.

Customer proximity: By having manufacturing footprints in different locations, companies can be more responsive to changes in consumer behavior. Proximity enables manufacturers to adjust to seasonal demand trends, for example, and quickly adjust due to shorter production lead times.

Flexibility: Different areas of the world face different issues, and it can be difficult to predict the ebb and flow of resources or human capital. Investing in different input sources is invaluable when a resource slows down or runs dry, as you will still have others to pull from.

Crisis response: Unpredictable events — such as floods, earthquakes, or regional pandemics — are inevitable. While companies cannot stop these events, they can soften the blow these natural or health disasters have on their supply chain through a diversified production strategy.

Build It Closer to Home – A Second Success

Until recently, St. Croix had employed a Taiwanese subcontractor to make thousands of unique cork handles for nearly 400 different models of fishing rods. Like its partnership in mainland China, the subcontracting arrangement in Taiwan worked well at first, but soon issues arose around production time. What had started as 4 weeks expanded to 12 weeks, making it nearly impossible for the company to meet fluctuating market demand.

In need of an alternative, Penicka sourced a trusted, North American supplier to take over production of the cork handles in the US. Within the span of a few months, production was up and running.

While costs were a bit higher, lead time had been cut back down to 3-4 weeks, orders were easily adjusted to fit customer needs and the production quality was excellent. It was the second time Penicka had successfully shifted production to North America, and he hasn’t looked back since.

Should You Buy or Build?

Is your company too dependent on contract manufacturing in China? What can you do about it? Contacting Strategic Footprint is a great place to start.

Bob Penicka and Doug Donahue launched Strategic Footprint to guide other companies in moving away from contract manufacturing in a faraway location. Penicka and Donahue can help guide your company in establishing its own production, including building production cost models and assessing risks.

“Strategic Footprint came into existence in response to a need,” says Doug Donahue. “More and more companies are looking to lower their risk and not be so dependent on contract manufacturing in China. We can not only help them get started, we can guide them through every step of the process,” he added.

Want to learn more?

Contact one of our principals, Bob Penicka and Doug Donahue, for a free consultation. They can build a cost model of your end-to-end manufacturing process. Now is the perfect time to take back control of your company. Are you ready?



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 12/09/2020 12:32PM by Kent Griffith.

Harry Glenn Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> it was my understanding that St. Croix acquired
> full ownership of Rodgeeks and Axiom buying out
> the Penikas sometime around April of this year..
> So they may very well now hold the Mexico facility
> through that buy out..

It is possible, but when you look up the rodgeeks trademark it is listed as owned and registered to Rapsody, Inc out of New York which is owned by Bob Penicka.

If St. Croix did buy rodgeeks, then why after 2 years does the website for rodgeeks still refer back to New York? Would it not make sense if St. Croix now owns rodgeeks that the website, corporation backing it, addresses and phone numbers would have all been switched over to where St. Croix is located in Wisconsin by now?

It all seems up in the air at this point. No telling where it will land or how.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/08/2020 05:29PM by Kent Griffith.

I'd love to hear your political rants sometime. lmao

Billy, that would be a treat..lol..but if half of what Kent says is true, why would any custom builder risk dealing with any of these companies..how much longer are they going to be around? besides the government is trying to shut everything down and hand it all over to the chinese through no fault of their own...lol.

when someone does that much research and can't find the information about St Croix buying Rodgeeks 6 months ago, which debunks literally everything he posted. IT's a shame this ridiculousness is even allowed to be posted.

Thanks Billy..so the warranties are still good..

I called St. Croix and they would not confirm nor deny what they have purchased or not, but said they would take calls on rodgeek rods whatever that means. When I asked them directly if they are now covering warranties on rodgeek rods all they would say is they will consider requests and to give them a call.

ben belote Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Billy, that would be a treat..lol..but if half of
> what Kent says is true, why would any custom
> builder risk dealing with any of these
> companies..

I have no hesitation at all dealing with St. Croix.

I would not spend any money with rodgeeks at this time. If St. Croix overhauls the website, changes everything over to them, and backs up what is sold, then I would.

Well ! Finally! I will call St Croix tomorrow and ask about my blank issues!! Even though they did respond to my emails!!

For me, I’ll answer the question of why a builder would risk dealing with any of these companies (Rod Geeks, St. Croix, Axiom). There simply isn’t a company now supplying blanks that is doing so without racking up doubts and limited choices. This is something that I think should be ringing alarms in the rod building community.

I paid for a Point Blank on October 17th that has yet to arrive in North America. They offer about twenty choices with less frills in finish options than Henry Ford’s Model T. NFC has funky spec tables while racking up reviews and BBB complaints that are more than concerning. Some of their responses to those complaints are more troublesome than the complaints. In one, they hide behind a nine day warranty. Maybe Aleks has righted that enterprise, but it’s hard to know. It definitely has history.

I bought a Rainshadow Immortal blank last year that has a slight wave a couple of inches below it’s tip. It was made in China. I held my nose and built on it rather than go through the hassle and delays of return. I’ve been thinking about trying Mudhole’s MHX Elite-X series, and probably will. They offer no information on who manufactures for them. This begs the question about how well a retailer is setup to manage offshore production quality and inspection? Even if you take COVID-19 related disruptions out of the equation, blank choices and the certainty in what is going to arrive have eroded.

Here is another piece of this story that is NOT B S... and it is found right on the rodgeeks website:

[rodgeeks.com]

"The Information We Collect:
This notice applies to all information collected or submitted on the www.RapsodyFishing.com website."

Rapsody fishing? Has anyone here purchased fishing rods from Rapsody fishing rod company owned by Bob Penicka?

This company and website is now closed down. But archived versions of the website are still online for viewing. The information found there is most interesting since it is yet another sales outlet for fishing rods and obviously CONNECTED directly to rodgeeks since it is mentioned and listed on the rodgeeks website as being the company responsible for collecting data.

Shortly doosh will be along crying @#$%&.



Edited 10 time(s). Last edit at 12/24/2020 09:22PM by Kent Griffith.

Well, I talked with one of the "former" employees of Rodgeeks today and he confirmed that St. Croix had bought the whole deal out and let everyone go..They are operating Rodgeeks.. he did mention they had some issues getting the phone # to transfer to St. Croix but hopefully fixed now.. He didn't have much beyond that as he's been gone for a while...


Let's hope they continue on with the rod sales and resolve the transition issues.
Guess we'll all have to wait and see

Hello everyone!
No more mystery - I called St. Croix today and spoke with customer service - they are indeed handling any warranty or other issues for Rodgeeks. I have taken photos of the issues I have with the blanks I received and emailed them to St. Croix as instructed. My issues will be taken care of and Rodgeeks orders will still be available moving forward per my conservation. I did throw my two cents in about wanting to be able to purchase blanks directly from St. Croix!
So, as I see it - I will continue with Rodgeeks blanks as I have before - HECK - they belong to St. Croix!

basically everything Kent posted is bullshit

Thank you Jon for finding this all out. I am so glad that at least the Rod Geeks selection of SCV blanks isn’t yet gone..

Billy Vivona Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> basically everything Kent posted is bullshit

Interesting. I checked articles, and public record which is considered as documented facts.

rodgeeks is nothing more than a trademark. Fact.

Rodgeeks is NOT a business. Fact.

The website even confirms this showing backing corporation is Axiom North America, LLC. Fact.

Rodgeeks trademark is listed as being owned by Rapsody, Inc. out of New York. Fact.

Rapsody, Inc. was Bob Penicka's corporation. Fact.

So you go to rodgeeks website and buy St. Croix rods from a company in New York called Axiom North America, LLC. Fact.

with addresses and phone numbers listed in New York, not Wisconsin where St. Croix is located. Fact.

And yet I showed a list of NY corporations, and the dept of state in New York does not show nor list any such corporation named Axiom North America, LLC. Fact.

[rodgeeks.com]

RODgeeks

7 Avis Drive
Unit B
Latham, NY 12110

Terms & Conditions

"With payment, the use of products and services from RODgeeks (Axiom North America, LLC) [hereafter referred to as "Provider"] constitutes agreement to these terms." "2) Content - All services provided by Provider may only be used for lawful purposes. The laws of the State of New York, and the United States of America apply."

Notice legal provider? Does NOT say St. Croix. Its been 2 years. So who are we doing business with and who is legally covering warranties under "laws of the State of New York"? According to the law all of this should be clear and correct by now. But it isn't so clear nor correct now is it?

What I said was it is troubling that after 2 years this situation has not been straightened out nor corrected.

I never doubted the possibility of St. Croix taking over. What I showed was information showing that there is nothing found to document the online claims of sale and transfer.

The public record in trademark office DOES NOT show nor reflect that the rodgeeks trademark has been sold or ownership transferred. Fact.

The public record in dept of State for New York DOES NOT show that Rapsody, Inc. has been sold or changed ownership. Fact.

But some guy online says St. Croix bought it all. Even though I showed with documented proof the factory in Mexico is leased from Entrada in 5-year long leases first one running 2008 to 2013 and second lease from 2013 to 2018. Fact.

One would think if this were true about St. Croix buying it all, then surely St. Croix would do due diligence in transferring everything by now, but I found it has not. Curious isn't it which is why I pursued it and I am still pursuing it. A friend of mine is a corporate lawyer with far greater resources for searching out such things and in a few days I will know more, but I'll just keep it off the forum so you won't be bothered by facts found in various government offices. I still find it a fascinating story worthy of checking in to.

This situation with rodgeeks should be concerning to all who might want to do business with them. Why can't they get the website and information corrected and updated so we know who and what we are dealing with? Its the right thing to do but it is not being done. At least there are those who do get it...

Kendall Cikanek Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> For me, I’ll answer the question of why a
> builder would risk dealing with any of these
> companies (Rod Geeks, St. Croix, Axiom). There
> simply isn’t a company now supplying blanks that
> is doing so without racking up doubts and limited
> choices. This is something that I think should be
> ringing alarms in the rod building community.

So true! Especially in this case. We are buying St. Croix, but NOT from St. Croix according to the documented information found on rodgeeks website. If that does not create doubts I don't know what will. All I can say is one would think St. Croix would have avoided all of this by simply doing due diligence. They haven't.

And have you even considered that doing business like this could be in violation of various state and federal laws? St. Croix should clean it all up, but they have not. And that is a fact.

Facts aren't B S. Hostility to facts is.



Edited 12 time(s). Last edit at 12/11/2020 12:30AM by Kent Griffith.

All I know is what I was told - and I don’t really care how businesses are set up - most likely for tax shelters or some other financial reason. So, I was told by a representative of St Croix - who by the way works there and should have no reason to lie to me- that St. Croix would be taking care of any Rodgeeks warranty issues and business is moving forward - with that said I am satisfied and will continue using their blanks as before.
I will update to this post as the warranty process proceeds for those that would like to know.

Jon Hood

I just put an email in to them about the SCV blanks.

I'd like to purchase the SCV70MF but the rodgeeks website says this one and many others are all sold out.

I am inquiring about when they will be available again.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 12/11/2020 09:41AM by Kent Griffith.

Jon, I'm with you..I'll continue to order the blanks i like from Rodgeeks. I think at the end of the day having St. Croix more directly involved will be a good thing.