Spirit Lake loses Pure Fishing offices to S.C.
By Russ Oechslin Journal correspondent | Posted: Friday, June 27, 2008
SPIRIT LAKE, Iowa -- Less than four months after taking over as CEO of Pure Fishing, Terry Carlson is moving the company's headquarters from Spirit Lake, where it was founded 70 years ago.
Pure Fishing's new world headquarters will be in Columbia, S.C., where its parent company, Jarden, Inc. already has offices.
The South Carolina capital will become the home to the Pure Fishing staff that includes senior leadership, sales management, sourcing and supply chain management, and specific category marketing and product development teams at a still-to-be determined location in the early part of 2009, field services manager Eric Naig said.
Naig said the move affects about two dozen, or 3 percent, of the company's 650 employees in Spirit Lake, the Dickinson County seat of about 4,700 population. Pure Fishing spokesperson Ron Giudice said he could not discuss specific numbers of jobs that would be moved from the Iowa Great Lakes area to Columbia.
Giudice said "not everyone who will be affected by this has been contacted yet by their supervisors. Some of the supervisors are traveling and things like that."
The spokesperson added that even Pure Fishing CEO Terry Carlson "wasn't prepared to answer questions about numbers yet because it is an evolving type of situation depending on who decides to go to Columbia and who decides not to."
Giudice said all of Pure Fishing's manufacturing, research and labs facilities will remain in Spirit Lake.
Naig described the relocation of the corporate offices as a "good thing for Pure Fishing."
"As we grow worldwide and as we get bigger worldwide and our business gets bigger, we will continue to invest here in Spirit Lake. And the more Gulp! we sell, the more line we sell, the more manufacturing jobs we're gonna have here," he said.
"We're really looking at it as a very positive thing to grow our company. It is about growing in two markets -- saltwater and bass fishing in the U.S. And to have the leadership located right in the middle of saltwater and bass fishing country will help us in those areas."
Carlson, who declined to speak directly with reporters, noted in a press release that "the talent and passion of our staff across each of our facilities, including our freshwater and saltwater centers of excellence in Philadelphia, Spirit Lake, Iowa, and Columbia, are unparalleled in our industry and we will continue to drive innovation across all of our brands to ensure they remain the best in the industry."
Pure Fishing is a leading global provider of fishing tackle, lures, rods and reels with a portfolio of brands that includes Abu Garcia, Berkley, Fenwick, Gulp!, Mitchell, Penn, Pflueger, SevenStrand and Shakespeare. The company does business in 19 countries.
Berkley Bedell, a former Northwest Iowa congressman, founded the firm, originally known as Berkley and Company, in 1937, by tying handcrafted flies in the upstairs bedroom of his home in Spirit Lake.
Jarden Outdoor, which also opens the Coleman brand of camping equipment, acquired Pure Fishing in April 2007 in a $400 million deal. Following the acquistion, Carlson succeeded Tom Bedell, Berkley's son, as CEO. At the time of the transition, Tom Bedell said the company would be "driven and headquartered out of Spirit Lake."
At its new corporate offices in South Carolina, the Pure Fishing group will not be located with its sister company, Shakespeare, which makes marine radio antennas in Columbia. Shakespeare fishing rods are manufactured at other facilities.
Founder saddened by move
Pure Fishing founder Berkley Bedell on Thursday described the relocation of the company's corporate headquarters from Spirit Lake, Iowa to Columbia, S.C. as "a heartbreaker for me."
Seventy years ago, Bedell, while in high school, founded the company, then known as Berkley and Company, in the bedroom of his Spirit Lake home.
"Fortunately it is only the top management. And most of the employees will still remain here. But I think this community has been a tremendous supporter of Berkley and Company and Pure Fishing," Bedell, a former Northwest Iowa congressman, said.
"I think first of all it is a business mistake to move the management. Second, they are better off to stay somewhere they have a partnership with the community than to move their management to a completely new place."
Bedell, admitted he couldn't imagine how the move would help the company.
"This has been a community affair up here. You need to care about your employees. I haven't talked to any of them. So I don't know. But normally people who live some place and have a home there would not vote to move to some completely different place."
"'There are a lot of things in corporate America I have a problem with. That was a great thing about having a family business. When we said that our main objective was to provide a better life for our employees and their families, that was not just a statement. We really believed that. It kind of breaks your heart to see what happens when a big corporation takes over."
-- Russ Oechslin
Pure Fishing's new world headquarters will be in Columbia, S.C., where its parent company, Jarden, Inc. already has offices.
The South Carolina capital will become the home to the Pure Fishing staff that includes senior leadership, sales management, sourcing and supply chain management, and specific category marketing and product development teams at a still-to-be determined location in the early part of 2009, field services manager Eric Naig said.
Naig said the move affects about two dozen, or 3 percent, of the company's 650 employees in Spirit Lake, the Dickinson County seat of about 4,700 population. Pure Fishing spokesperson Ron Giudice said he could not discuss specific numbers of jobs that would be moved from the Iowa Great Lakes area to Columbia.
Giudice said "not everyone who will be affected by this has been contacted yet by their supervisors. Some of the supervisors are traveling and things like that."
The spokesperson added that even Pure Fishing CEO Terry Carlson "wasn't prepared to answer questions about numbers yet because it is an evolving type of situation depending on who decides to go to Columbia and who decides not to."
Giudice said all of Pure Fishing's manufacturing, research and labs facilities will remain in Spirit Lake.
Naig described the relocation of the corporate offices as a "good thing for Pure Fishing."
"As we grow worldwide and as we get bigger worldwide and our business gets bigger, we will continue to invest here in Spirit Lake. And the more Gulp! we sell, the more line we sell, the more manufacturing jobs we're gonna have here," he said.
"We're really looking at it as a very positive thing to grow our company. It is about growing in two markets -- saltwater and bass fishing in the U.S. And to have the leadership located right in the middle of saltwater and bass fishing country will help us in those areas."
Carlson, who declined to speak directly with reporters, noted in a press release that "the talent and passion of our staff across each of our facilities, including our freshwater and saltwater centers of excellence in Philadelphia, Spirit Lake, Iowa, and Columbia, are unparalleled in our industry and we will continue to drive innovation across all of our brands to ensure they remain the best in the industry."
Pure Fishing is a leading global provider of fishing tackle, lures, rods and reels with a portfolio of brands that includes Abu Garcia, Berkley, Fenwick, Gulp!, Mitchell, Penn, Pflueger, SevenStrand and Shakespeare. The company does business in 19 countries.
Berkley Bedell, a former Northwest Iowa congressman, founded the firm, originally known as Berkley and Company, in 1937, by tying handcrafted flies in the upstairs bedroom of his home in Spirit Lake.
Jarden Outdoor, which also opens the Coleman brand of camping equipment, acquired Pure Fishing in April 2007 in a $400 million deal. Following the acquistion, Carlson succeeded Tom Bedell, Berkley's son, as CEO. At the time of the transition, Tom Bedell said the company would be "driven and headquartered out of Spirit Lake."
At its new corporate offices in South Carolina, the Pure Fishing group will not be located with its sister company, Shakespeare, which makes marine radio antennas in Columbia. Shakespeare fishing rods are manufactured at other facilities.
Founder saddened by move
Pure Fishing founder Berkley Bedell on Thursday described the relocation of the company's corporate headquarters from Spirit Lake, Iowa to Columbia, S.C. as "a heartbreaker for me."
Seventy years ago, Bedell, while in high school, founded the company, then known as Berkley and Company, in the bedroom of his Spirit Lake home.
"Fortunately it is only the top management. And most of the employees will still remain here. But I think this community has been a tremendous supporter of Berkley and Company and Pure Fishing," Bedell, a former Northwest Iowa congressman, said.
"I think first of all it is a business mistake to move the management. Second, they are better off to stay somewhere they have a partnership with the community than to move their management to a completely new place."
Bedell, admitted he couldn't imagine how the move would help the company.
"This has been a community affair up here. You need to care about your employees. I haven't talked to any of them. So I don't know. But normally people who live some place and have a home there would not vote to move to some completely different place."
"'There are a lot of things in corporate America I have a problem with. That was a great thing about having a family business. When we said that our main objective was to provide a better life for our employees and their families, that was not just a statement. We really believed that. It kind of breaks your heart to see what happens when a big corporation takes over."
-- Russ Oechslin
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SJ wrote on Apr 7, 2009 6:30 PM: