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| it looks like Joe Bucher has made a move to a different company for production of his line of lures..."with a plan to refocus on...building high quality big fish lures and customer service."
good luck to him and Robinson Outdoors with the new "Joe Bucher Outdoors" line.
http://www.fishinfo.com/fishing-articles/article_459.shtml
Joe Bucher Teams Up With Robinson Outdoors
Six years after giving up the day-to-day reigns of running his musky tackle manufacturing business, Joe Bucher has joined forces with longtime friends, the Robinson family, to create a new company — Joe Bucher Outdoors.
“I am very excited about this new relationship,” said Bucher. “The Robinsons bring three generations of experience in the fishing industry to my business. I am certain we will benefit greatly from this new partnership. We plan to refocus on what brought us to the table in the first place — building high quality big fish lures and customer service. The Robinsons and I are totally on the same page in this respect.”
The Robinson family has been in the fishing tackle business since 1939. Beginning with the late George Robinson, who opened a livebait wholesale business, son Jerry Robinson then morphed it into a two-pronged operation that featured both livebait and fishing tackle distribution. Eventually, the third generation of Robinsons — Ken, Dave and Mike — expanded the business even further including an extensive fish hatchery division.
“Like I said,” Bucher added, “the Robinson family knows every single aspect of the fishing business. They raise fish and minnows of many species in their own ponds, as well as supply sporting goods dealers with thousands of fishing tackle items. They know the fishing business. They know my lures. They have sold them for over 20 years. They have been in the fishing business for three generations.”
Check that, a fourth generation of the Robinson family is now also working the business.
“I can’t tell you how excited the Robinson family is to partner up with Joe Bucher and his product line,” claims Ken Robinson. “After 40 years in the fishing retail business and 50 years as a distributor, tackle manufacturing will add yet another dimension. We plan on using our extensive sales staff along with the sales staff of other major distributors to expand our customer base. We also plan to get back to the basics of what made this product line so popular with big game fishermen everywhere for over two decades — build the very best possible products, be aggressive but thorough on researching new ideas, and make sure they are all available on a timely basis.”
The new company will effectively be called Joe Bucher Outdoors and will be based out of Genoa City, Wisconsin. Bucher and the Robinson family expect to be fully operational by early 2009.
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Posts: 4053
Location: Land of the Musky | Good deal!!!! There are a few companies in the industry that will never be beat. A few classic bait makers that will stand the test of time are Bucher, Suick, Dare Devil, Johnson, Rapala, Mepps and a few others. They will be around for the next 100 years IMO due to good quality, price and customer service. Can't wait to see what they have coming in 2009!
James |
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Posts: 743
| It's great news but it will never be like the old days when you could go to the shop in Eagle River ,get great customer service and chat with Joe and Tom. |
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Posts: 1185
Location: Wishin I Was Fishin' | Is Tilkey still involved?
If not, it would be a shame. |
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Posts: 58
Location: Oak Island, MN | Is this taking back the existing product line? Or starting a new series of lures?
Edited by Frank Walsh 11/21/2008 8:11 AM
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Posts: 2515
Location: Waukesha & Land O Lakes, WI | "Is Tilkey still involved?"
From what hear, no.
Nice Musky Joe. |
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| The cool thing is, two of the baits tacklebooty mentioned are made in my hometown of Antigo, WI. The suick and mepps factories are both within a mile of my house. It just means a little more to me when I catch a musky on a suick or mepps musky killer. Both great baits. I can still remember bringing squirrel tails into mepps as a kid for 25 cents a piece. |
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Posts: 355
Location: Wausau, Wisconsin | This will not be a new line, just a new direction for the company. Back to the old ways where lures were extensively tested and fine tuned before distribution (hopefully). I don't think you'll see some of the baits that didn't fit into the traditional foundation of the company. Hopefully this works out for all parties involved and I believe it will.
And yes, Tilky is still involved with the company, which is good, he rocks. |
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Posts: 413
Location: Madison WI | I am happy for the merger, I can finally look forward to having 2 seperate baits that are identical and move the same rather then them having complete different action like in the past. |
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Posts: 921
Location: Apollo, PA | That is great news. I have many bucher lures from the beginning, and they were definitely superior to ROI. I also have read of complaints with the newer topraiders (a great lure)....... Hope Joe gets them back to the way they were put together originally. Once again, great news and good luck to them on this one. |
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Posts: 1726
Location: Mt. Zion, IL | Are Bucher lures still going to be produced? |
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| Joe Bucher has never sold control of his lures to anyone; rather he has licensed the right to produce them to companies 5 years at a time.
during his presentation at the Chicago Show, he stated that he was unhappy with the performance by ROI, so when the contract ran out he awarded the license to Robinson Outdoors, creating a new name to produce his products: Joe Bucher Outdoors, as described in the press release.
so yes, i'd expect the core Bucher lineup to continue to be produced by the new company, it sounds like they should be available in the next few months.
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Posts: 2515
Location: Waukesha & Land O Lakes, WI | I heard originally that Tilkey was out, but now I hear that he's going to be making baits yet for Robinson as an overlap until they get going on making them....8", is that correct? |
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Posts: 8788
| I talked to Joe at our club meeting last month, and he seemed pretty excited about the whole thing. I still can't help but wonder though if people are going to be selling ROI stuff at a premium 5 years from now, just because it's not made any more.
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