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Posts: 177
Location: Germantown & Land O Lakes WI | Looks like Joe found a new home for his company...a little north of Green Bay. Here's the press release...............
"We're extremely excited about our new deal!" exclaimed hall of fame angler Joe Bucher. "Roberts Outdoors is a perfect match. They have the warehousing, distribution and financial resources to make this all happen, in addition to mirror image business philosophy — service the customer with absolute top quality products.
"On top of that, both Dale and Jim Roberts are avid fishermen and hunters, and personal fans of the entire product line. What more could we want?"
With that in mind, Joe Bucher signed an exclusive new brand-licensing agreement with the folks at Roberts Outdoors to market and sell all fishing, hunting and food-related business that carries the Joe Bucher name. "What this basically means", according to Bucher, "is that anything out there with my name attached to it in the hunting, fishing or cooking arena now comes from my friends at Roberts Outdoors."
So, who is Roberts Outdoors? Nestled in New Franken, Wisconsin (just above Green Bay heading towards Sturgeon Bay), Roberts Outdoors is a subsidiary of Dental Health Products, Inc. a distribution business doing over 31 million dollars in sales annually. "Right now they stock over 31,000 SKU's and ship 95% of their orders on the same day that they are received, plus their backorder rate is less than 2%! This policy alone should be a welcomed change from the shipping nightmare that a lot of our customers experienced last year," says Bucher. "These guys run a tight ship — a pick and pack operation, enabling them to ship the smallest order to the big ones right now, right away."
Roberts Outdoors also has an infrastructure capable of aggressive growth with a full scale marketing department including graphics, copyrighting, and full product management capabilities. "This part of their operation really excites me", Bucher exclaimed. "We had such a demand over the past two years to introduce my entire bass/walleye/panfish product lines, ProFinesse and Power-Tec, as well as our new hunting product line. However, it's one thing to design a new lure and catch a few fish on it; it's quite another to bring it successfully to marketplace. It takes a lot of guns both financial as well as resourceful to make this all happen. Roberts Outdoors can do it all."
Day to day sales, marketing, and operations of Roberts Outdoors are managed by Bruce Ellis, Vice President and General Manager.
So, why Roberts Outdoors and not some other well known, big name in the tackle industry? "In all honesty, I haven't seen many success stories when it comes to small tackle businesses like mine being acquired by bigger players in the industry. In the majority of these cases, smaller high quality niche products like mine get swallowed up and diluted whenever they become part of something much bigger. Bigger isn't always better. I didn't want this to happen here, and certainly didn't want to see my products get put on the chopping block down the road by some bean counter. That could easily happen in that scenario, and I have actually seen it happen already on many occasions with companies similar to mine. Instead, I wanted someone running this business who took this whole product line more personal. Like someone from Wisconsin who hunts and fishes up here. Who knows what a TopRaider is. Who knows what my TV show is all about. Yet, someone who also has the horsepower to take our product line to another level. Roberts Outdoors was a perfect pick, in this regard."
So, the hick-up of uncertainty that existed this past year during the transition when Joe & Beth Bucher decided to get out of the day-to-day manufacturing of fishing lures after 25 years of operation, yet find a worthy suitor has finally ended. "But the ending is now just a new beginning!" Bucher excitedly proclaims. "These guys have big plans and far more resources to take what we did to the next level and beyond."
Joe Bucher also plans to stay very involved in the research, development and promotion of the existing product line as well as in the introduction of exciting new items.
"Together, we (Roberts Outdoors and Joe Bucher) will make one heck of a team," Bucher adds. " And, you can all be assured, I'll still be out their fishing, hunting and filming TV with all these products making sure they are always performing the way they are suppose to, as well as working on new stuff. Roberts Outdoors wants to assure everyone, in turn, that they are committed to making sure these same products become available to each and every one of you!"
Looks like we might be able to find a Top Raider here in Wisconsin some time soon!
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| Thanx 52" for that info! This is great news as I always have a Bucher product on at least one line at all timx! Some of these shops raising the prices this summer was bull! I hope they all sit on those 35.00 top-raiders,I think even Joe Bucher himself would think it a crime! Maybe now I can finally get that bullfrog #700 I have been trying to get all summmer!Best of luck to the Buchers and the Roberts and hope to start to see the shelves FULL AGAIN! Handy | |
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Posts: 1936
Location: Eau Claire, WI | This says nothing about manufacturing/availability. What we can hope for is that Roberts and Joe are able to be influential in making sure product quality and availability remain what it used to be.
We all have to be smart enough to figure out that you don't manufacture injection molded minnow baits, bucktails, rubber grubs, and bar-b-que sauce in the same facility that has been selling 30M a year in dental supplies...
I'm not trying to bring a dark cloud over what I hope is truely a brite spot for the fishing community and Joe and his wife. I'm just pointing out that the press release talks about marketing rights and distribution, not manufacturing...and it was my understanding (word on the street sort-to-speak) that manufacturing is where the problem was during this past season.
Either way let's hope it gets better than it has in the past year and we can return to the days of quality products, great service, and stocked shelves of Bucher fishing products. | |
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Posts: 14
Location: Omaha | just out of curiosity, i wonder who actually manufactures his lures...? | |
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Posts: 239
Location: Madison, WI | I hit Rollie & Helen's August 28th and they had just received a boat load of Bucher tackle. They had everything available. Don't have any details as to where they are being made or by whom? Gander Mountain in Madison has 5 bins of Bucher tackle on clearance for $9.97. To bad I missed the topraiders......
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Bucher Tackle...sold again!