We're thrilled to share some exciting news with you!

We're delighted to announce that Foundation Outdoor Group has acquired American Tackle and Mud Hole Custom Tackle. This means that the American Tackle and Mud Hole brands will now be part of a new incredible range of brands, which already includes MHX, CRB, ProProducts, and more.

As we move forward, rest assured that your dedicated team of B2B account managers will continue delivering the exceptional customer service you've come to expect !

We want to assure you that this acquisition will have no impact on your existing business or customer experience.
If you have any questions, please visit our website, www.foundationoutdoorgroup.com , or contact your account manager.

We can't wait to bring you more products, exceptional service, and exciting opportunities for the rod building community!

Kevin Landers

Marketing Manager
American Tackle Co.

That sounds exciting Keven.

Good luck with the new venture and continued success.

"will have no impact on your existing business or customer experience." I'm thinking most of us are hoping it will have positive impact on our existing business or customer experience." If not positive, ho hum.

Here’s hoping that the new mgmt at MH can find it in their heart to drop the $1,000 yearly purchase minimum for wholesale accounts. I no longer do business with MH since that policy kicked in this past spring and I lost my status due to only spending about $800. I’m small but trying to grow, and am now directing my business to sellers who don’t have restrictive minimum annual purchase policies. Someday I hope to be spending $1,000 annually just on ProWrap thread (it’s my favorite)????

Rick Handrick Wrote:
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> Here’s hoping that the new mgmt at MH can find
> it in their heart to drop the $1,000 yearly
> purchase minimum for wholesale accounts. I no
> longer do business with MH since that policy
> kicked in this past spring and I lost my status
> due to only spending about $800. I’m small but
> trying to grow, and am now directing my business
> to sellers who don’t have restrictive minimum
> annual purchase policies. Someday I hope to be
> spending $1,000 annually just on ProWrap thread
> (it’s my favorite)????

Hey...at least they have a program.

Rick Handrick Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> t to drop the $1,000 yearly purchase minimum for wholesale accounts.

Mudhole should be praised and worshipped for this policy Scott Parsons from Fishsticks4u tried doing this and it pretty much ran him out of business by the vast majority of "business owners" who were unable to hit his $200 yearly minimum. Fortunately MH is big enough to give people who deserve wholesale accounts better pricing, and those who are hobby builders posing as a business (which there used to be a ton of, probably still some lawnmower services getting wholesale from Merrick) to go elsewhere and not have it affect them. For the most part wholesale is 28% off retail, so the $200 extra you would have spent to hit the minimum would have saved you $280.

A lot of retail industries have some sort of wholesale program and most set a minimum buy-in and/or yearly purchase amount to make such accounts worth their while. You have to ask yourself, if you are not buying even $1000 of rod blanks and components in a single year do you really deserve wholesale? Too many people manage to get wholesale accounts and buy so little its not worth a company's time to even carry them on their books. $1000 in rod components per year is nothing these days if you are actually in the business of selling custom rods.Personally I think MH is being very generous by offering a $1000 per year minimum.

Wow - didn't expect that kind of fanboy venom for that one. Alrighty then.

This all seems like much ado about nothing. The two companies have been sharing a building, some level of ownership, and some board members for multiple years. The new company has this same owner, Thomas McNamara, as the CEO. It’s likely he just finished buying the Meehan family out all the way. I’ve never understood why the tie-up was denied for so long. I would hope that any exclusive retail arrangements Mudhole has, like with CFX, are allowed to sunset for the sake of competition and consumers.

Rick Handrick Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Wow - didn't expect that kind of fanboy venom for that one. Alrighty then.

Truth injury, get this guy a medic!!

Anyone new attempting to get into rod building as a source of revenue, even modest, will quickly learn that they CANNOT compete with the established veteran builders who buy wholesale; that LITTLE 20 - 40% discount makes a HUGE difference. Granted, for-the-fun-of-it, hobby-builders do not really deserve a discount and most of them readily accept the fact. But those sincere enough who actually go through all the flaming hoops to acquire a formal business license and pay their appropriate taxes deserve to be on a level playing-field with the established rod building establishments. To put “sales quotas” on a struggling newbie is counterproductive to the overall health and growth of our rod building industry!!! Read and comprehend that again!!! It appears that the only ones in objection would be the established builders afraid of the competition or the businesses who allow their blind bean-counters to prevail. Furthermore, who is left to carry-on after the established veterans retire unless someone “buys” their business?!?!?
Although I would certainly be a proponent of a uniform wholesale (wholesome) discount for all, a tiered “the more you buy = the more you save” approach might be an acceptable compromise. Let’s not allow a “Lord of the Flies” scenario to dictate the outcome of our beloved rod building craft and industry.

Mark Talmo
FISHING IS NOT AN ESCAPE FROM LIFE BUT RATHER A DEEPER IMMERSION INTO IT!!! BUILDING YOUR OWN SIMPLY ENHANCES THE EXPERIENCE.

Gotta disagree with you, Mark.

If “wholesale” exists, it’s got to be for the volume buyers.

Otherwise, the result is increased retail prices, because everyone’s getting a discount.

Then, you’re hurting the rodbuilding beginner, before he ever gets to the point of starting a business.

Joel,
With all due respect, I certainly have to disagree with you, but then, that’s what this forum is all about. If “If “wholesale” exists, it’s got to be for the volume buyers.” Is that so? Who stipulated that??? Under what pretense? “Otherwise, the result is increased retail prices, because everyone’s getting a discount.” Quite the contrary; lower initial costs of the builder = lower cost to the end user. “Then, you’re hurting the rodbuilding beginner, before he ever gets to the point of starting a business.” It's a no-brainer that quite the opposite exists; if the newbie can’t compete monetarily, then he cannot compete at all. Your’s is a suggestion that the rich get richer while the poor get poorer. That certainly seems counterproductive to the health of the rod building craft in general to me!

Mark Talmo
FISHING IS NOT AN ESCAPE FROM LIFE BUT RATHER A DEEPER IMMERSION INTO IT!!! BUILDING YOUR OWN SIMPLY ENHANCES THE EXPERIENCE.

Mark Talmo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> To put “sales quotas” on a struggling newbie is
> counterproductive to the overall health and growth
> of our rod building industry!!! Read and
> comprehend that again!!!

Ok..I've been reading and re-reading that again. Doesn't make sense.
From what I can tell the overall health and growth of rod building industry is at an all time high and is expected to continue to grow.

Billy Vivona Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Rick Handrick Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Wow - didn't expect that kind of fanboy venom
> for that one. Alrighty then.
>
> Truth injury, get this guy a medic!!

I thought "fanboy venom" was pretty clever...maybe an Italian blood line.

As I often suggest when people are complaining about businesses not meeting their needs: Consider it a business opportunity, start your own business that does things the way you want, and put the other business out of business. Strangely, I don't know of a single case where this has happened.

Mark Talmo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> To put “sales quotas” on a struggling newbie is counterproductive to the overall health and growth
> of our rod building industry!!! Read and comprehend that again!!! It appears that the only

All you have to do is look at the success Mudhole is having to see how unbelievably wrong you are. One by one all the companies that did as you are suggesting have gone out of business.

Mark Talmo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Anyone new attempting to get into rod building as
> a source of revenue, even modest, will quickly
> learn that they CANNOT compete with the
> established veteran builders who buy wholesale;
> that LITTLE 20 - 40% discount makes a HUGE
> difference. Granted, for-the-fun-of-it,
> hobby-builders do not really deserve a discount
> and most of them readily accept the fact. But
> those sincere enough who actually go through all
> the flaming hoops to acquire a formal business
> license and pay their appropriate taxes deserve to
> be on a level playing-field with the established
> rod building establishments. To put “sales
> quotas” on a struggling newbie is
> counterproductive to the overall health and growth
> of our rod building industry!!! Read and
> comprehend that again!!! It appears that the only
> ones in objection would be the established
> builders afraid of the competition or the
> businesses who allow their blind bean-counters to
> prevail. Furthermore, who is left to carry-on
> after the established veterans retire unless
> someone “buys” their business?!?!?
> Although I would certainly be a proponent of a
> uniform wholesale (wholesome) discount for all, a
> tiered “the more you buy = the more you save”
> approach might be an acceptable compromise.
> Let’s not allow a “Lord of the Flies”
> scenario to dictate the outcome of our beloved rod
> building craft and industry.

There you have it guys. Mark, in just a few words, has just figured out how you should run your business.

One of the worst things that ever happened in this industry, was the ability to buy-in for wholesale or distributorships for very little money. When most manufacturers dropped their $10,000 dealer buy-in (sometimes it was even more) the number of dealers increased, the piece was cut into more and more pieces and everybodys' sales margins dropped. When dealers lowered their buy-in for wholesale, the number of wholesale accounts exploded and the ability for serious builders, who were willing to make a sizable investment in the hopes of actually making money selling custom rods fell exponentially.

The health of the industry these past 20 years isn't as good as it might appear and certainly nowhere near as healthy as it was in the 80's, 90's and early 2000's. I'm in a unique situation to know what most here don't when it comes to who makes what and who owes this or that. Plenty of product is being sold, but not much money is being made. The business model of most companies these days is intended to pay next month's bills, not produce a profitable livelihood over the long haul. Those days are over.

A return to high initial buy-ins, at the both the dealer and wholesale builder level, would be the best thing to happen to this industry in 20 years.

..................



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/12/2023 04:15PM by Tom Kirkman.

I wonder when Rick will chime in with his "Fanboy venom" aimed at Tom. lmao