Seeing Red!
“I’m ####ed off with listening to the same thing, time and time again!”
What really gets under your skin? This month we speak to the Angling Trades Association’s Naidre Werner to fi nd out what’s really grinding her gears!
T
he esteemed editor of T&G and I talk on a regular basis, trading notes on what is going on in the market. So when he asked me to write a piece for the magazine under the ‘Grinds my Gears’ headline, I did ask him if I could change the title to read ‘Pissed off with listening to the same thing, time and time again.’ So at the risk of jeopardising my Chairmanship of the ATA and potentially losing (or possibly gaining) members, in true David Hall style (rest his soul), I’m going to air some of my own moans. I’m fed up with hearing that the
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The ATA’s chair, Naidre Werner, vents her spleen!
trade aren’t ‘giving back’. Don’t believe everything that you read in magazine columns written by so called ‘high profi le’ anglers or in beer induced late night posts from the keyboard warriors on social media. The ‘trade’ gives back as much as it can afford to at any one time - in product for event prizes, in cash for team and event sponsorships, in celebrity anglers time (paid for by the ‘trade’) and in their own time often consulting on
56 | Tackle & Guns | June 2018
Boards like the ATA, charities and other organisations and at their own cost. Too many times I get phone calls (especially from those with a civil service background who are not known for their commercial savvy) saying that the trade needs to do more for the sport. Actually, we all need to do more for the sport, criticisers included. Fact – the trade donated close to £300,000 worth of products and CASH in 2017 to initiatives like National Fishing Month, Get Hooked On Fishing, participation schemes run by the Angling Trust and Canals & Rivers Trust, angling teams run by the Angling Trust, local angling coaches, local angling youth clubs, community groups and schools, Fishing For Heroes, conservation groups, and starter sessions at local fi sheries. That’s close to 1% of the total turnover of the whole market. Let’s also not forget that the ‘trade’ employs nearly 20,000 people, creating careers and keeping families, households and lifestyles above the bread line. I’m also sure that the
UK government appreciates the 100 million plus paid over to them in taxes too – a small detail that will be raised in a meeting to be scheduled between Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Michael Gove and the ATA shortly. It’s not fair. On some levels, I can
agree with some retailers – how can a larger retailer (no matter who they are) sell a product for less than another retailer can buy it for? Yes, I understand the power of the large order when negotiating discounts (I was a Commercial Director at publishing company Bauer for a signifi cant number of years!) but there does come a point where a loss leader marketing plan does no one any favours, especially on a product where everyone could make some money. We all know that the angler is just a consumer who is targeted everyday by every retail outlet around them, supermarkets, petrol stations, phone companies, the list goes on. But guess what, brands like Apple don’t offer deals to anyone selling their products,
www.tandgmagazine.com
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