Opening a Fishing Tackle Shop

[Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA)]

Nearly all the tackle shops in my area have a side line for when times are bad.

Eg: Trophies with an engraving service, pet foods, aquarium equipment, diving gear, guns and archery. Ease of parking outside the shop is vital and can make or break you. The most successful tackle shop in Rotherham has a ?1 a day car park right outside!

 

[alan]

i hope my local tackle shop closes down, the guy is a clueless idiot.

he bought the shop, prime location in the main shopping center, near some of the best fishing beaches in the area, and a few good ponds and lakes full of mixed fish. sounds great dosnt it.

he has cut out allmost all the sea gear, he never has any fresh bait in fact it is nearly always dead. he dosnt keep up to date on what is being caught where, and when. he knows nothing about any fishing other then carp.
90% of his stock is for carp fishing.
the nearest shop to him(5 miles) is loving him, he has got a load more customers and is doing really well.

if you do oopen a shop make sure you cater for the fishing in the area and not just waht you like.

 

[nick salter]

so what really needs to be opened is either a big fishing megastore that is stocked to the roof with everything at internet prices, perhaps actually is the warehouse for a big internet site (which needs lots of capital) or a small bait and advice driven that is sympathetic to the local area. can't you use boilies for cod alan?! get up to date man! i love the marketing money advice, that sure is a way to get rid of a load of money very quickly.
or what about starting a franchise that pools its resources to buy at prices that compete with the big boys, gives you more marketing bang for your buck and lets the huge group of bored desk jockeys like me realise their dream of being involved in the fishing world.
would anybody have any interest in that type of thing?

 

[steve pilkington]

Hi Nick,
When you open a tackle shop alot of the big boys don't want to know you for the first 12 months. Browning were very helpful as my first account. Good company to deal with. Once you have a couple of companies under your belt, you can usually get accounts. My advice is pay early or at least on time and get a trading history. Don't be tempted to take large amounts of tackle on the never never. This will catch up with you and bite you on the ass! Other tackle shop owners (away from your area) will generally supply you, but you lose some of your margin. If you are serious about it, contact me and I will give you some contacts
Regards
Steve

 

[Huw]

Just a thought. Had you considered going into partnership with an established tackle shop owner? He would get a capital injection, you would get a tackle shop with less outlay, a customer base, and the contacts within the trade.

 

[nick salter]

steve- thanks very much for the advice and the offer of help. I am continuing to think and plan the whole package. Once I am sure (not that you can ever be sure sure!) that it is a viable and profitable exercise then I would love to take you up on your offer. top man.
Huw - thats a very interesting angle and worth a look if the price of the "goodwill" is not too high. I am still thinking whether getting a "fishing network" of dealers has any potential.

 

[jamesbevan80]

Maybe a niche online fishing tackle shop is the way to go? Maybe one that sells second hand fishing tackle for example.Ive come across this one which looks quite easy to setup with limited overheads

 

[tonya]

But make sure you can spell!!

 

[no-one in particular]

I would try something different given the success rate of tackle shops. An internet angling cafe with baits and bits. Outlay would be less probably. Somewhere an angler could stop first, have a coffee, a breakfast, order stuff from the internet if that's his forte, buy his baits and any bits and bobs he might need for the day from you, have a chat with other anglers, flog some second hand stuff on the side, maybe bargains you picked up yourself off ebay, organized trips etc. Quite a few profitable angles you could work into the format; its a shot but could become a popular hang out for anglers and you could tick over nicely if it did. And your in trendy Surrey!

 

[jasonbean1]

that thread was 10 years old, how did that turn up to re-start

and I wonder if he ever opened a shop?

 

[cattyfatty]

Round my area 3 tackle shops have closed in last 2years the only one in my town was only small scale ,but still trading ,he went into different lines , bee keeping ,and farming gear ,still doing the fishing side as well ,I asked him was he making a profit ,just told me keeping his head above water when selling tackle.
Then there's a bloke who setup eBay account selling bulk gear ,got some stuff off him a couple of years back ,I went to pick it up and was small plot on a business park on his own , I got some more gear of him last summer ,went to his place what a change he had taken 3 more units with and a couple of staff now and the amount of gear he had there was shed loads .
So the story here is small scale tackle shops are hard going , and internet has its benefits.

 

[mikench]

My local tackle shop , now Angling Direct , have put up the price of maggots from £1.70 a pint to £2.30! Bound to happen and still cheap! They also had loads of hooks at £1 a pack and lots of other bits priced at 50p. I picked up a pack of shot size 12 but put them back ! I take enough tackle to the bank without taking a microscope!:wh

 

[jasonbean1]

to be honest as much as I like small local independent tackle shops theyre very hard to support simply on stock level and pricing. in oxford the shops are ok but pricey...could do with an angling direct here