Spotted Fin - launch of a new era

The inception of Spotted Fin, where it all began

The idea of Spotted Fin came from Managing Director, Pele Johnson, who has a passion for angling, along with most people in the industry. From his first catch at the local canal age 8, to serving in the British Army at 16, and through to adulthood, he has enjoyed many, many (many!) hours on the bank. After studying what nutrients fish need to be healthy to maintain and even gain weight, he started experimenting with his own baits. After years of trial and error he discovered exactly what the fish craved to sustain great physical condition. Clearing his locals lakes he realised he had some great baits and ideas. It was when his friends, and friends of friends, were asking for his winning formulas, he thought about the concept of Spotted Fin.

But with a strong business background, Pele didn’t want to bring just another bait company to the industry. There is so much scope for innovation in a slightly stagnant market and after many discussions and strategy plans with investors, it was decided that there was an opportunity to do things differently.

Why we are different

Spotted Fin was born out of a desire to bring a new brand to angling that represents the next generation of anglers. Having a brand that has the ability to provide for anglers in different disciplines is something different and exciting. We believe there are many crossovers in angling some explored and some yet to be explored, for example match fishing crossing over to carp fishing and other disciplines like sea fishing where variations of circle hooks are an accepted pattern in product lines within carp fishing.

We want to explore ideas from outside of carp fishing that have been slowly trickling through to our sport to designing and making long term high quality baits and not a cheaply rolled imported product, re-labelled as the next best thing. We will be offering ingredients and ideas to people to make their own unique baits and to companies or trade that need to buy in bulk quantities. We want to empower the angler with high quality products and competitively bring them to market.

We believe that by bridging the gap of the different angling specialties with our wide range of ingredients and bait, along with a great line of terminal tackle that will compete at the top end of the market for quality, we are unique in our approach to angling. Coupled with the support we will be offering to the industry along with our focus on juniors and ladies and mens team and all the exciting projects in our pipeline…we are making a change. If we want to take something out of the industry we better be prepared to put something back in.

As for the baits themselves, we want to show people how we do it, and how we put together what is now commonly called in the industry, an HNV bait and/or long term bait, then provide the right tackle that draws all of this together. The underlying theme for us is not just focused solely on carp fishing, but also the sphere of match fishing as well as that is a huge part of the sport. There are so many opportunities between the two different aspects of fishing that we can help bridge the gap on. We want to make the most of that; we want to draw people in from our development of ground baits we will launch later this year in the match sector and we can then adapt, for example into stick mixes and so on. And we are not just talking about grinding pellets up with some maize meal and hemp. We really look deeply into the nutritional requirements of the fish being targeted and build quality fresh baits. There is a real opportunity to do this in the market but profit currently seems to get in the way of a quality service.

Our products

We have spent years working on not just our own bait ranges, one of which will be released late spring/early summer 2016, but also sourcing over 160 of the best quality bait ingredients. We have also been developing for some time now our own range of terminal tackle with manufacturers in the UK, Europe and Japan and will slowly release this starting with our hook range, PVA and new coated hook links which we believe will set some new standards in the marketplace.

There’s nothing more rewarding than catching on your own creation. We are working with one or two manufacturers that have some innovative new products that can allow people to do this more effectively on a domestic level for the garage based budding bait gurus of the future. We aim to support them financially by not pricing these products so high to make them nearly inaccessible. We are not here to line our pockets and put the squeeze on an already over priced market. We do need to make sure that we sell enough products to ensure we stay in business but not put them at a price point that would make these products inaccessible to youngsters or anybody else in the market. That’s not our ethos. We are here to make a difference. It has been a long journey not just to get the right products developed and tested but to look at other areas where we can be innovative in our design, delivery and pricing.

We do not want to force our customers to have to buy a small amount at a higher price or otherwise a ton of product they may never get round to using. We want the customer to have the choice of what they want and in what quantity with regards our ingredients and getting this right in the first year will be paramount to our success.

Our strategy is to deliver a product at the right price point that will not fail the customer, which will deliver the goods and will catch fish consistently and safely.

Testing

We need to ensure our bait and ingredient products nourish, nurture and protect the welfare of our target fish and enable the angler to catch them, and catch them consistently without detriment; this is about bringing products to market that have been thought out, developed from scratch in a scientific manner in labs where we can really put a product through it’s nutritional paces before we release it to our angling teams for testing.

Our strong angling team are made up of consultants and testers who are constantly on the banks trialling our products. There is always someone somewhere fishing on our behalf, not just for pictures in magazines but to provide us with feedback. We are confident we have encapsulated all the relevant feedback from our testers to ensure only the best quality items will be launched giving the customer the confidence to know that every product been has been Team Finned!

Team Fin

As an organisation we bring together not only product managers, bait experts and angling consultants and testers but also investors, technologists, strong business and management skills, marketing, supplier logistics and brand development.

Our diverse team are part of every product. We invite our Spotted Fin team anglers to our bait making facility to discuss our ingredients, our marketing department will talk to anglers about naming conventions, our business managers are assessing the market and logisitcs and making sure we can be economically viable. Everyone’s opinion and ideas count. Successful companies are always made up of successful teams.

We have already been approached by a number of anglers through our social media wanting to become part of the brand. We do not want to find the angler with the biggest fish or who is the most famous. We are seeking individuals who bring something different to Spotted Fin. We want to find anglers who can provide great feedback on testing and come up with ideas, because ultimately it is when you are on the bank that you have the epiphany about doing something a little bit better. We are looking for that energy, passion and enthusiasm.

Production facilities

Our Hertfordshire headquarters, include a state of the art bait making facility, factory production and warehouse. We hold over 70 metric tons of bait ingredients from all over the world including nine tons of liquid product alone. We have the capability to store many tons of frozen produce, that is just phase one of our real estate plan. We are currently working on plans for phase two.

Our long term plan

We have a three-year detailed strategy and a five-year plan, as most new organisations of this size would do. We expect the first year of operations to establish ourselves in the market and cement our infrastructure to manage future years. We would rather do a few things very well now than lots of things not so good. We also don’t want to overload the customer with hundreds of new products in one hit. We have lots of new products in development in the pipeline that will slowly be introduced.

We also plan to bring out a range of carp clothing and a range of match clothing that is slightly different in its use, and which can currently rival what is available at present. It is a longer-term part of the plan, and will be available in due course.

We also have a technology division that is working on some really interesting and innovating online capabilities for phase two and three of our business plan that may well revolutionise the way angling companies and retail customers interact.

We want to partner with the right tackle shops to increase availability of our products. We will build on relationships with the angling publications and through social media to help embed our brand. We will have stands at the angling shows in late 2016 and early 2017. We have plans to raise the profile of juniors and females in the sport and to provide a brand that people will feel they can belong to without any stigma. There is lots going on!

Doing things right

We are registered and audited by the government to handle animal by-products, which means we have to be licensed and able to track a single animal by-product from its origin. Whether from the south China sea, Norway or down the road in Hertfordshire, right through to a single boilie or liquid sitting in someone’s fridge that they have purchased from us. This is an EU requirement and all bait company’s using animal by-products such as fishmeal’s for example have to comply and must go through this process and be inspected every 3 months. We want our customers to feel comfortable that we know exactly what is in the bait product and where it comes from if there were to be any issues. Any customer should be happy that they know what is in their bait is legal, of the right quality and has traceability of the ingredients.

Everything we do has to be done at maximum quality whether its the complex system of filters to ensure our water for out baits is cleaner than spring water or the micron thickness level we use in our pouches for packaging or the complex batch monitoring required by the government for managing animal by-products. Every little detail has been thought of and put in place.

Not only that, but we have strict health and safety rules and we have installed modern, high capacity air filtering systems in our labs to ensure our staff are kept safe by removing any particles from the air they breathe, just as an example.

Its again about principles, working correctly, and this whole ethos goes right through the company into our sourcing capability and our bait making.

We won’t bring a product to market unless the quality is comparable or better than the competition, either through a supplier or through our own development. We don’t want hooks that break under pressure or hook links that fray and snap. We ensure that right from the start of development we over engineer every aspect of our work. This holds true whether we are designing a hook or designing a bait, there is just no compromise when it comes to selling a product from the Spotted Fin brand. We won’t profess to have found a new strain of life giving serum from a rare tree in Ecuador that’s going in our bait. People are tired of hearing that. They want a product that will work consistently because it is high quality and designed to protect and nourish the fish as a priority, that’s why the fish crave it and what enables us to catch them which is a bonus for us!

Support the angling community and the future of the sport

One of our goals is to encourage more youngsters into the sport, they are after all the future of fishing. We want to work hard to support the next generation of angler, the junior. We plan to sponsor a junior team and give them a structured path to follow by then moving into our senior teams and taking part in competitions etc. Whether that is through direct sponsorship, competitions or other ways, we will invest in this area.

We will also be looking at supporting female angling as well as sponsoring ladies teams and individuals. We see this area growing in the UK/Europe over the next 3-5 years.

If you think we can help you, please get in touch with us.

In summary, we are a new brand to the angling industry, who want to do things differently and make a change, for the better. We are confident if you join us at the beginning of our journey, you will love our products and service, and stay with us into the future.

For additional information, please visit our new website www.spottedfin.com which will be launched in mid March.

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