Lifted from another site.

NEWS RELEASE


Shakespeare Fishing Tackle Division January 17, 2007
3801 Westmore Drive
Columbia, SC 29223
(803) 754-7000



SHAKESPEARE FISHING TACKLE ACQUIRES PENN FISHING MFG. CO.,
A LEADING SALTWATER REEL COMPANY


For Immediate Release
Columbia, SC – Shakespeare Fishing Tackle, a leading manufacturer of fishing rods, reels, fishing line and accessories is pleased to announce the acquisition of Penn Fishing Tackle Mfg. Co. Founded in 1932, Penn is the market leader in saltwater trolling and spinning reels and saltwater rods.

These products include the famous Penn International®, Senators®, GT, and GTO trolling reels, as well as Slammer® and Spinfisher® SSM and SSG spinning reels.

“For 75 years, Penn products have been the gold standard for offshore, inshore and surf fishing,” according to Scott Hogsett, President of Shakespeare. “Shakespeare is excited to be able to add Penn’s broad assortment of saltwater products to complement the current Shakespeare, Pflueger and All Star freshwater, inshore and saltwater offerings.”

“We look forward to bringing to Penn the vast new product introductions and innovation that our customers have come to expect from Shakespeare and Pflueger each year. The Penn name is one of the greatest brands in fishing, but has lacked the resources to grow and develop markets. Our volume and economies of scale will allow us to reinvest in the brand and grow market share.”

Shakespeare is a K2 Inc. company, a premier branded consumer products company with a portfolio of leading brands.

For more information, contact Mark Davis, Director of Advertising and Public Relations for Shakespeare Fishing Tackle, at (803) 754-7000 x. 3105.

Hopefuly this will be a good thing.

Yep, things happen when I'm out of town... I heard at a recent distributor show in early January that a letter of intent had been made. Upon return from the Black Sea this week I was infomed that it was a "done-deal." No doubt Shakespeare has the resources to help Penn continue with their progress on new models which have been designed and planned, but slow to come into production and marketed. Shakespeare has purchased a couple of well respected names in saltwater sportfishing over the past four or five years.

There is a seeming push to integrate freshwater oriented firms with saltwater specialty manufacturers. We saw OTG (Berkely...) purchase Sevenstrand a couple years ago and there were rumblings that they were going after Penn or another Saltwater reel manufacturer to help them reach this market.

As of this time I don't know how this will influence Penn's marketing, production, distribution, personnel... over the short-term. But, we'll keep asking questions and let you know what's up as we aquire more information. Like Keta states, "Hopefully this will be a good thing."

Glad to see you got home safe.

Glad you're back, Mark! I hope you had a great trip!!

"Hooper, don't screw it up now, he's comin' straight for us!", Capt. Quint.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: tanglediver,

K2 Corporation is a San Diego County compnay.
Chairman Richard Heckmann was a founder of Callaway Golf, is part owner of the Phoenix Suns and loves to fish.
The compnay operates K2, Volkl, Marker and Worth among others as "premium" sporting goods brands, and others as "mass-market" brands.
Most likely this will be very good for the "upper end" US-made Penn models like Torques and Internationals, helping get the new models out a lot faster with better capitalization.

unfortunately items like K2 snowboards and k2's sub brand fishing reels are all now made in the orient
Hopefully, shakespeare/penn will not become Shimano, jr.

My Toyota's made in the Orient....great ride. 65,000 trouble free miles so far. My brand new Chebby Tahoe went into the shop some 4 times in the first two months to fix one bug after another after another after another. My Furd Mustang could never run right...

So what's so bad about fishing gear being made in the orient?

quote:

So what's so bad about fishing gear being made in the orient?

Let's see, OKUMA for a start.

You can't compare products "made in Japan" with the crap pumped out by the PRC. Quality is not a strong point with many US companies and not an issue at all with most products made by our friends, friends my ass, in the PRC.

So we just buy quality gear, cars, TVs, or what have you from companies that have demonstrated QC regardless of national origin.

Japanese made products were a joke 50 years ago. After WWII, they could only assemble radios, then moved to assembling TVs, then making teeny tiny cars. QC was spelled USA or Made in Germany. "Made in Japan" has been the symbol of QC since the 1970s-1980s. Japan now subcontracts assemblies to Indonesia and Malaysia. Just look at the back of your Panasonic cordless phones. The Japanese can't afford to do their own assemblies anymore.

Korea went through the same assembly to low level manufacuritng to making some impressive heavy industry items like 1,000 foot cargo container ships. They leaped forward in less time than it took Japan.

China is leaping even faster from making plastic junk to currently signing contracts to sell cars in Germany and soon to the US. Chevy Equinoxes SUVs are already fitted with engines made in China. "LG" now makes almost all the washing machines, dryers, and refrigerators sold at Best Buy and Lowes. In fact, they are now subcontracting many of their assemblies to Pakistan, Malasia, Singapore, and Indonesia then coming back to China for final assembly.

While PRC is not up to "Made in Japan" QC levels, they are not far behind and coming up fast. They know they must upgrade QC continuously and they have shown remarkable increase in QC and use of robotics nad manufacuring efficiency. In fac,t they are attracting foreign capital for industrial development at a prodigious rate.

While I still won't buy Okuma, there's no need for broad sinophobic statements--they're our competitors yes, but not enemies--we hope, recalling that Japan and Germanay were once deadly enemies too. China is already a world power economically, second to the US in consuming world energy, and first in speed of development. It has more influence around the world than the US now has--mainly becuase of Bush and Iraq. So we can either work with them or work against them. But the 800 pound gorilla is not going to be pushed around.

But enough of my political analysis.

I think my point was that K2 is able to operate both "premium" and "mass-market" products within its' family of brands.
It is not realistic to expect that a company can't offer mid-price and even lower price goods under a given brand that also has high-end products.
Bottom line, the VSX Internationals and Torques have been excellent new introductions, but are coming out too slowly.
The more I learn about K2 and how they do things, the better I think the new ownership will be in getting us the entire family of VSX's....like a 12VSX, a broader selection of Torques, and whatever new products are in the future.

the same co. that makes okuma currently makes shakespeare. All-star's heavy rod line was emasculated, with only the "best sellers" surviving after the K2 takeover. . People with warranty problems with all star tuna rods were sent Ugly sticks. I dont shop at lowes and Home Despot for the same reason that I dont buy fishing gear at Big 5. I hope that you are right, and that the next generation of Vsx's aren't made with Rulidium (whatever that is )drags.
Talking cars? My Dodge has 300,000 work miles and my wifes made in atlanta Taurus has 150,000.
Guess I'll just fish my Newells

Are we supposed to now believe that the people that have built their reputation on selling crap at Wal Mart are going to take Penn to the top?

The new Penn's are nice for a design several years too late. Wait, I'll put my deposit on the new Penn spincasters!

Sadly, it used to be Shimano or Penn; either way, you got a good reel and quality service.

Ask the same question now: get screwed with price fixing or buy crap. I think I will stick with Accurate and Avet for my reels.

Made in America should still mean something while we have people dying for our flag.

Hmmm, I kind of like Home Depot and Lowes, but I take it to mean that you don't like low or mid-level product...... fair enough.
There are indeed only a handful of factories that put out fishing reels, ditto rods, you would be surprised at the multiple brands that come from the same building.
Anybody who is on this site is likely only interested in the high-end stuff, which can stand on its' own merits.

Remember it's K2, not Shakespeare that is the actual owners.
K2 has managed to run the K2 and Volkl ski brands competitively and separately, much like Shimano runs the G.Loomis rod brand separately.
They also make $300 softball bats under the Worth brand!
I am always puzzled when I hear that something is "too late", like they should not have bothered?
The Torques in particular are something completely new, and have the patents and ICAST "Best new saltwater reel" awards to prove it.
They don't look that much different externally than the original CNC reels produced by Bruce Posthummus 25 years ago, so in many ways Shimano, Daiwa, Pro-Gear, Accurate, Tica and all the others are at least a "cosmetic" copy of his design.
If the Torques and VSX Internationals are good for your style of fishing, give them fair consideration.
If you can only buy from companies that offer only US-made products from top to bottom, it's pretty limiting.