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Outsourcing Fishing Equipment  

 

This was essentially done by ABU for all the right reasons i.e. to fulfill a product gap and meet a need NOT merely to reduce costs and increase profits as is common practice of many public sector Government Departments  today.

Successive generations of  owners/managers, Carl, Gote and Lennart Borgstrom of  the family company A.B.Urfabriken were forward thinking in that when they saw a product need and they were not producing the item  at that point in time, they sought to supplement the company offerings by sourcing a supplier to fulfil this need.

 One thing was paramount in a private family company with no board of directors and bean-counters/auditors to report to,  was quality at any cost. The items were never cheap, but when  weighed up with quality and length of service, they would prove to be in expensive on cost /per day of service.

 Initially product sources came from European countries but when better was found across the waves, it was eventually added to the ABU stable of thoroughbreds.

 It seems from the earliest times, 1940’s onwards, ABU was in need of not only specialized fishing reels but also rods, lines, lures and accessories. Tooling up for hundreds and later thousands of different product items, some composed of dozens or up to a hundred discrete parts, could not happen overnight or even in a couple of years. These parts were made by hand, punched out or created on lathes to complete the highly demanding standards of tolerance required. Timelines and production rates were major issues for the fledgling company. Great staff relations where workers tested products and made recommendations of modifications/improvements saw this company eventually become the world leader.

 Of course as well as topics like 1. Standard Production in Sweden and 2. Out-sourcing , other issues like 3. Cessation of Product lines 4. Re-issue of Product lines 5. Commemorative Reproductions  and 6. World Marketing beyond Europe, and 7. Wholesale Off-shore Production, would become necessary for ABU and future owners of the company. For the moment , I will contain my self to highlighting some of the outsourced  items and perhaps gather more info for the other topics in future.

 

Reels:

To my mind, ABU in the early years 40s/60, rarely collaborated outside the company, only  with Zangi of Italy for spinning reels and Everol of Italy for huge IGFA reels, , BUT never  to produce their Record casting/Ambassadeur range of fine reels. They reigned supreme “Fit for a King”.

They co-advertized Pfleger Casting and Medalist Fly Reels from the 1955 N&N catalog p.34/35. The logic of this defies me and I am still to determine the marketing strategy behind this action.

One of the first problems for ABU was the use of the actual name Record for which this licenced name was already being used by a Swiss company on their range of spinning reels. ABU initially specialized in casting reels , documented  elsewhere on this site, but the early spinning reels came from Switzerland and Zangi of Italy had to imported. These were groundbreaking in design (multi speed models) and no doubt ABU learned a lot from this relationship before becoming independent in this area, eventually some 4 decades later becoming responsible for the creation of what was argueably the best spinning reel to be designed: The Suverian Series 1000 to 4000 size.

Two decades or more later, Cardinal spinning reels ( identical except in colour and model name) were marketed into USA by Zebco in the 50’s as  Garcia had obligations to the French  Mitchell Reels. They were badged slightly differently over four or more versions.

It was not just spinning reels, but Big Game reels, Mooching reels , Fly reels and ice fishing reels that were also outsourced. In the late 50’s the Borgstom family commissioned the Everol Company to badge engineer the beautiful big red IGFA reels ( made in 4/0, 6/0, 7 ½ /0 and rumor has it, a prototype 9/0 model) and had them  branded ABU for sale in Europe and Garcia for sale in USA. The reels were identical featuring the famous “2 daughters and rising sun symbol” , differing only  for marketing name.

To my knowledge all Abumatic, 500 series and Ambassadeurs were all designed and built in Svangsta, Sweden.

The Diplomat 420 and 450  Mooching Reels, made of graphite, were I believe created in USA but I cannot confirm this for certain.
For one year only, the distinctive blue and yellow Delphin (in 2 models small and large)was imported from Finland and I am also quite uncertain as to why this was done. To my mind it offered no advantage over the existing ABU  Pimpel lineup.

Rods:

In the mid 40's and early 50's , the very best of rods were of split cane design and manufacture. ABU came into rod manufacture for the first time. Initially they had a Norwegian company by the name of Horgard supply their need for cane rods.

Only link I can find to this Norwegian manufacturer is here and the cane rod resides with Artefacts Canada, written in French.

 

Their first move away from cane rods  and into mainstream rods, (in this case hollow steel rods) were built on , courtesy of Swedish steel manufacturer Sandviken Stal. In the 1960 Tight Lines catalog, ABU trumpet the values of the new space age material Fibre Glass. They were quick to take advantage of this US technology . The first rods made of steel  and solid fibre glass were branded Record while all ABU branded rods were hollow fibreglass. The relationship with Narmco (USA based Industrial firm) as to advantage ABU for many years. I cannot determine just when ABU developed their own rod blank manufacturing capability. Please advise me if you know more.

Lures:

Before ABU fully developed all its capability with respect to lure design and manufacturing, it imported and included product such as these from Norway in the 1951 Napp och Nytt catalog.

The real lures looked like this.

It seems ABU’s strength lay in the production of simple spoons, perks and spinners, easily pressed from existing equipment. Very interestingly, ABU had a thriving home based assembly industry for some lures. Lure parts and instructions were supplied to local housewives who were largely tied to the house in the 40’s but happy to find some paid work that could be easily completed at home. 

 Later when the plastic lures started to enter the world market and of course ABU wanted to be part of this expanding market, they had to be outsourced  and symbiotic relationships  developed between ABU and other world companies ranging from UK, to Finland and USA. 

 

 Of particular interest was ABU’s  collaboration with the world’s largest lure manufacturer Heddon. Always aspiring to be world’s best practice , ABU only associated with likewise companies from who they learned. Faithfulness was not a strongpoint of these arrangements as they all eventually soured. This logical agreement re marketing some Heddon lures in Europe via the ABU network would work well for 5 years until ABU’s modified Heddon Spook  plug, called the Hilo (with patented adjustable depth bib)  ate into the psyche of USA fishermen and seriously threatened  sales and the relationship ended in 1960. The Hilo lure today still remains one of the most popular in the eyes of fishermen and myself would never fail to have some in my tacklebox.

 The second major lure which ABU brought into their fine stable of plugs was the Killer. My friend Henrik (detailed article here) has taught me so much about the history of this fine Killer minnow lure, which incidentally was the first lure I ever bought to catch Barramundi with in the mid 60’s. By then I was buying genuine ABU product with the classic parallel lined and cross hatched black, blue or gold with silver colouration. By then the lure had been modified many times from its original Finnish form originally conceived on the lakeside with input from Laurie Rapala and the other great name Nils Master.

 The list goes on but it would be remiss of me not to mention in passing the Scottish origins of the Kynock Killer invented and tested  by Jock Kynoch on the Tay River. This design was licenced for a short time by ABU and called the ABU Kynoch. Its sliding up the line design so only the hooks remained firmly and heavily attached to the salmon’s mouth was innovative. The major design elements of this top running surface popper has been much copied and no serious lure fisherman today would be without a popper in his tackle box. The ‘original’ is still being modified, with one website, I recently noted, offering custom painting of the old design.

 

Bing McClellan of Burke from USA developed the soft rubber technology (and was probably first to do so)  for creating lures and the Little Dig eventually became part of ABU’s lineup called the Cello and Cello Dip, offered in 4 colours and one size only for each of the popper and deep diving versions.

My most recent "discovery" courtesy of Todd Larson is that of the ABU plug called the Snoky. It has originally been made as the Thompson Doll fish below. The lure came into the ABU catalogue due to the relationship between Thompson/Brunswick and Brunswick/Zebco and Zebco/ABU.

I would love to add one to my collection if anyone has one for sale.

The Doll Fish was a popular lure first introduced in 1972. Outdoor writer Don Carpenter declared of it in The Annapolis Evening Capital: "Something new in plugs for fishing is the 'Doll Fish' made by Thompson Fishing Tackle Co., Knoxville, Tenn. It is a sinking, fast-vibrating brilliant colored minnow with real-to-life scales that make it look like the McCoy. It emits a 'clickity chek' sound while moving, is made in three sizes, 1/4-ounce, 3/8-ounce, and 5/8-ounce--colors ranging from light to dark."

 

 

A Thompson Doll Fish in the box

In 1972, after two decades at the helm, Doll Thompson sold his company to Brunswick Corporation, venerable pool table makers who had acquired Zebco corporation in 1961.

The lure maker himself!

 Having made a name for themselves in the fishing reel market, the Brunswick-owned Zebco found a nice match in Doll Thompson, who served on the Board of Directors of the firm until 1975. Zebco continued making most of Thompson's line into the 1980s.

This particular deep diving model was not translated to the ABU stable

Many other links between Burke and ABU are suggested below by the Welsh Sleuth himself Mike Elsworth.

       

 

 

I first came across a lure called the Swappin' Droppen on a card with both Abu and Burke on it. The lure has a rubber body with a hair tail and uses interchangeable Droppen spinning blades (pic to follow). This lure really intrigued me so I started asking people in America what they knew about Burke. I found out that they had ceased trading but they had made really neat rubber bodied baits throughout the 60s and 70s, maybe into the 80s.

   

Then I found a Big Dig lure and realised that it was a Cello Dip with a different lip. I started asking more questions and found an Ol' Twitch, it was a Cello ! Then the penny dropped Abu's rubber bodied lures must have been made by Burke ! Last year I was told by a friend in America that he had been speaking with an old guy that used to work for Burke, the old guy clearly recalled that Abu bought baits from Burke. You have subsequently had this confirmed by Len so this is now proved as fact. Len B; "I think that Burke (Bing McClellan) tried to sell our lures after Garcia gave it up. He was not successful and might have dumped the parts."

 

     

What is less clear is whether Burke also made the Rakan, I believe that they did. I also believe that they made the fish part of the Drop-fish.

 

 

I have spoken to the an expert on all things Burke, and I showed him a pic of a Rakan and he did not know it. Len B; "Rakan was after my time, so I do not know."

He did however think that Burke could have made it. I am not aware that any other firm had the technology to make it at that time. So for me it must have been Burke.

 

The next strange twist came when I found a Reflex on a Burke card, then I found a Toby ! My prediction is that I will find an Ellips next !

 

Why ? about three years ago I bought a large collection of lure parts from a guy in America. The parts were Toby bodies, Droppen bodies and blades and Elipps bodies. It turned out that he worked for a scrap metal merchant and there were tonnes of these parts being melted down ! He saved a few examples because he thought they were too good to scrap.. He was right.

 

My (Mike Elsworth)  current theory is that the then Abu Company  may have gone  through financial difficulty and paid Burke with lure parts. Possibly they made them into finished lures and sold what they could.  When Burke itself was wound up the remaining parts were sold off as scrap. Just my theory at the moment but I bet that I am not far off the truth. 

Lines:  ???

Len B: "The first ABULON monofilaments were made by Plate Bonn. Same as Platil, but private brand for us. The first ABU fly lines were made by Sunset Lines in California. Then by another company. I cannot remember the name just now, but they were the first with floater fly lines with integrated air bubbles. The name will come to me eventually. Very famous company and at that time the leaders in the field. The name of the company was AIR CEL!!

 

Accessories: ???

I am still seeking information on more outsourced reels,  rods,  fishing lines and accessories. Any additions or corrections to this information would be greatly appreciate by myself.