Big changes hit the fishing industry last week, and they are good for western Arkansas for bass anglers in general.
First, Plastics Research and Development Co., or PRADCO, bought the Norman Lures trademark and its Norman's hard plastic lure molds. That means Norman will join Rebel, Heddon, Smithwick, Cordell, YUM and other brands under PRADCO's umbrella.
Last Thursday, TNO Fishing closed on the other part of Norman's dissolution by purchasing Norman's production facility in Greenwood, including all of its equipment. TNO Fishing is the parent company for Luck-E-Strike, Nemire and Renosky.
Bobby Dennis, TNO's vice president of business development, said the company plans to expand the plant by 10,000 square feet and that it will hire 30-50 new employees by this time next year.
Most, if not all, of Norman's employees will be retained, Dennis said.
"The average employee we hired has been there over 17 years," Dennis said. "They have a very experienced staff, not only in production but people who have dealt with the industry. They are people that when you talk about a fishing lure, they know what you're talking about."
This move flows against the trend of outsourcing lure production to China or Central America, but Dennis said domestic production will improve TNO's responsiveness to market surges and problem solving.
"We've been very frustrated with China and the Dominican Republic, and we've been very frustrated with the lack of flexibility, not having stuff when we need it," Dennis said. "Last, but not least, it's hard to have quality control when something is a half a world away.
"We know we can build stuff and make better products here just as economically."
TNO's entire operation, including shipping, receiving and invoicing, will be housed in Greenwood, Dennis said.
We've written often about Luck-E-Strike's Rick Clunn Series lures for smallmouth and largemouth bass. They will be made in Greenwood, as well.
Several years ago, TNO Fishing experimented with a concept it called American Originals, Dennis said. The line went to the back burner because Clunn's baits did so well, but the Norman plant will enable TNO to prioritize them.
"We've got four new body shapes and 18 new colors that will all be done at Norman," Dennis said. "Wal-Mart went absolutely nuts over them."
TNO is going forward into the past to make these baits. Dennis said they will be made with the same type of plastic and manufacturing methods similar to great baits of the 1970s and 1980s. Many classic crankbaits and stickbaits fell out of favor not because of style, but because of the perception they don't work as well as they did. Dennis said that perception is accurate.
"How many times have you heard that a bait doesn't do what it used to do?" Dennis asked. "When you build baits out of the country, it's not the same bait a lot of times. They might use different plastics than they originally used."
Decades ago, softer plastics were used to make hard-bodied baits than are used now, Dennis said. They were glued together. Today's baits are sonic-welded.
"The bait doesn't look the same, sound the same, run the same or act the same," Dennis said. "We'll use Butyrate plastic. Nobody's done that in ages, but that's what Cotton Cordell, Bill Lewis and Rebel used 40-50 years ago."
Butyate doesn't get as brittle in cold water as modern polycarbonate, so lips won't break as easily, Dennis said. Butyrate also forms a body that makes a duller, more subtle sound than the clacking of polycarbonate, he added.
"It [polycarbonate] has a sharper sound and a harder body," Dennis said.
Polycarbonate and glue are incompatible for making hard-body lures. Dennis said this was because polycarbonate reacts with lure manufacturing glue to create toxic fumes.
Dennis said retro manufacturing will be easy to do in Greenwood because Norman was one of the few lure makers that never moved its production out of the United States.
"That's one of the big pluses of us buying this company," Dennis said. "If somebody wants a lure that was productive thirty or forty years ago, we'll be able to make the same type of lure."
Expanding the selection of lures made in Greenwood will bolster Arkansas' legacy in the lure industry, Dennis said.
"At one time, 80 percent of the lures made in this country were made in Arkansas," Dennis said. "You had War Eagle and all those PRADCO names. Cotton Cordell was here before he sold to PRADCO. Myriad brand names were started and produced in Arkansas, and that's just kind of gone away."
Sports on 11/29/2015