Most folks that visit here know of our long association with Newell, and my own fondness for fishing their reels. I liked and respected Carl a great deal, and Norma was a true gem - the heart of the operation. Well, she no longer works with the firm. For those of you who have relied on her in the past for service and parts, she's not an option. The new owner of Newell is Valley Manufacturing in Semi Valley CA, phone number is 800-820-3134 should you have any parts needs in the future.

We have been told not to expect any production for about 2 months time. We have gobbled up all the reels we can source, have a fair stock of blue and pink reels from Carl's production, some S series, and at this time no P series. I'm not spreading rumors, and I'm still hoping for the best for the future. But, without Norma, and noting the continuing production weakness under the new ownership, well what we have in stock could be all we see come from them and those pieces are indeed classics.

I've been trying to order parts for my reels for the last two weeks with no luck. I called, was told I needed to fax or e-mail order, sent e-mail to address I was given over the phone, received a reply with another e-mail to order parts and I haven't gotten a reply yet. I'm at the point where 'm ready to buy a used reel to rob parts off of ( I need a pinion gear and SS bearing cap). This stinks, my Newells are my workhorses, but if parts are going to be hard to get a hold of I might sell them off

Are there any other sources for small common parts? Mark, do you guys have any S646's left in stock?

This is only my 2 cents, but here goes. Keith Gross bought the Newell reel business, and I guess he was expected to hit the ground running at full speed.

What he found was numerous problems with the molds, dies, and even with the inventory he had acquired, so all these areas had to be addressed, and at huge cost both in dollars and man power hours.


As had been rumored in the past there had been a serious drop off in quality control at Newell. Much of this was attributable to Carl's deteriorating health, combined with the fact many of the production runs were being produced by worn out molds.

Keith refuses to keep on putting out inferior products, and has endeavored to correct these areas. Combined with the fact his expertise in plastics, and to a large extent metals will undoughtably produce great reels in the future.

Much of the old inventory, including parts, have been locked up and are not available until Keith produces them to the specifications he requires.

He and his company will just have to be given time to make all these things happen. Pressures brought about by sales demands, and even customer demands will have to be put on the back burner till at such time systems are implemented to meet all the demands.

Personally I believe the wait will be worth it.

reel man, I hope that you are right. Newells are my favorite, and the reels and parts have been part of my gear for thirty years. Perhaps he should start like Carl and only produce the two's and three's-he could get going faster. I'm waiting and confident!

I'm hopeful, but after missing two seasons (2 years) that hope is fading until which time we see some positive signs. I understand the various holdups, have received all sorts of tales regarding re-doing the molds (that was supposed to have been accomplished about six months ago for the 200 and 300 series I believe). As a dealer I can't even get a straight answer or courtesy of a promissed call back regarding things so mundane as gears. So, what I see is that their only person who gave a damn about customer service (Norma) is no more. The replacement does not return calls or follow through with promised information, also tells customers things are available when they are not, and no product flows. If the product is not right, don't produce it - I understand that. But, the last year of Carl's production saw good reels being built. And, 2 years time to get settled is plenty of time to turn things around. Heck, this was darn close to a turn-key purchase - it even came with Norma as part of the program... So, as much as I like and respect you RM, my faith in Newell is fading without knowing and seeing more.

I go along with Agate, just produce something! And, do it well. Once relationships end, once the product is forgotten about through neglect or absence, years of hard work proving the worth of the gear will be lost, too. Shelf space at retailers will be taken over by other gear...

This is one of the saddest things I've heard in a while. We grew up fishing Newells and I still fish some of my original ones. The 332 is one of my favorite reels of all times. Its a real shame and I hope the company can recover, move forward and continue Carls legacy.

I'm keeping my Newell P332f untill they pry it from my cold dead hands!

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

I just wonder why they decided to stop selling replacement parts? Were they made with inferior material, rough machining? What was out of Keith's specifications? I ended up looking like an idiot on a local fishing board when I PM'd a bunch of members wanting the new contact info for Jill (Valley's new parts person), and no one received a reply when they inquired about parts. If they do have a warehouse full of parts open up the doors so those of us with a stable full of Newell's (6 on my shelf) can keep them doing what they were built to do, FISH!!

This is really sad, I've got a small stock pile of Newells that will last me into the next lifetime, but I still will pick one up every once in a while on the auction site. I can't seem to move onto the "new" reels in the market.

Does this mean that I should try and pickup an S220 from you guys sometime in the soon future, if you guys even have one? Was/is this an old Carl production, or are the S-series you guys have a Valley production. Also, were there any significant or even minor changes made between the original Carl and the Valley reels up till now?

Another thing I'm afraid of, is even IF Valley comes through, and makes improvements, does this necessarily mean that parts may not be compatible with the old P/C/S/etc series? I realize some of my questions can't be answered, but I just wanted to put it out there.... Obviously I really hope they come through also...