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Bobco - In Administration

Paul Richardson

Paul Richardson

Senior Member & Supporter
I heard a rumour a few weeks ago about Bobco in Leeds going into administration
Just picked this up on another forum
Damn shame - great shop and people and some good bargains
Made many purchases and dropped in on the Swale on the way home to try gear out 🥲
They are having a closing down sale according to web site

Home of Fishing Tackle - Angling Specialists | Bobco Tackle

From the complete newbie to the veteran angler, Bobco supply top quality fishing rods, reels, baits tackle and lures plus a wide range of fishing accessories.
www.bobcotackle.co.uk www.bobcotackle.co.uk
 
Gutted, although I had a weird feeling it was heading this way the last couple of times I popped in. Chris Kendall was superb with Zach and I when we started making trips there. It's a huge floor area to keep stocked. 25% off everything in store now. I honestly don't know whether I will go for a nosey. I think I'd feel like a carrion bird ☹️
 
Their Web site doesn't seem to work currently. When I came back to fishing 15 years ago I bought everything from them that I felt I needed. First class people prices and stock. If they have fallen , and I felt they were as good as it gets in tackle, who on earth can survive.
 
Alan Rose said:
Gutted, although I had a weird feeling it was heading this way the last couple of times I popped in. Chris Kendall was superb with Zach and I when we started making trips there. It's a huge floor area to keep stocked. 25% off everything in store now. I honestly don't know whether I will go for a nosey. I think I'd feel like a carrion bird ☹️
Click to expand...
On their FB page, people says the shelves are empty now
 
Alec Hague said:
Their Web site doesn't seem to work currently. When I came back to fishing 15 years ago I bought everything from them that I felt I needed. First class people prices and stock. If they have fallen , and I felt they were as good as it gets in tackle, who on earth can survive.
Click to expand...
I think they just shut all the online businesses now
 
Alan Rose said:
Gutted, although I had a weird feeling it was heading this way the last couple of times I popped in. Chris Kendall was superb with Zach and I when we started making trips there. It's a huge floor area to keep stocked. 25% off everything in store now. I honestly don't know whether I will go for a nosey. I think I'd feel like a carrion bird ☹️
Click to expand...
I know what you mean Alan. In the days when I had a proper job which involved me being a company "doctor", pre the '85 act I could almost smell how a business was doing just by walking in a viewing. I still have it too. Truly saddened by the news.
 
Shame, had some good service over the years from them…but unfortunately a sign of the times, fewer people are spending their money on leisure activities, luxuries etc. you only have to look at the classifieds on this forum to see the market isn’t the same as 24 months ago…..been done incredible bargains posted but folk are more cautious. It’s definitely a buyers market if you have the spare coins!
 
Alan Palmer said:
Shame, had some good service over the years from them…but unfortunately a sign of the times, fewer people are spending their money on leisure activities, luxuries etc. you only have to look at the classifieds on this forum to see the market isn’t the same as 24 months ago…..been done incredible bargains posted but folk are more cautious. It’s definitely a buyers market if you have the spare coins!
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I think that true Alan. I watch ebay quite avidly. It has been a wonderful boon since I retired allowing buying trying and selling reels then later rods. But now it is totally moribund.
 
Paul Richardson said:
I heard a rumour a few weeks ago about Bobco in Leeds going into administration
Just picked this up on another forum
Damn shame - great shop and people and some good bargains
Made many purchases and dropped in on the Swale on the way home to try gear out 🥲
They are having a closing down sale according to web site

Home of Fishing Tackle - Angling Specialists | Bobco Tackle

From the complete newbie to the veteran angler, Bobco supply top quality fishing rods, reels, baits tackle and lures plus a wide range of fishing accessories.
www.bobcotackle.co.uk www.bobcotackle.co.uk
Click to expand...

Alan Rose said:
Gutted, although I had a weird feeling it was heading this way the last couple of times I popped in. Chris Kendall was superb with Zach and I when we started making trips there. It's a huge floor area to keep stocked. 25% off everything in store now. I honestly don't know whether I will go for a nosey. I think I'd feel like a carrion bird ☹️
Click to expand...
I’m the same - I don’t need anything but would like to go one last time but it doesn’t feel right
 
Alec Hague said:
Their Web site doesn't seem to work currently. When I came back to fishing 15 years ago I bought everything from them that I felt I needed. First class people prices and stock. If they have fallen , and I felt they were as good as it gets in tackle, who on earth can survive.
Click to expand...
The local tackle shop owner who told me a few weeks ago said the whole industry is struggling
All the reps from the big companies , even Korda , scratching around for orders
Paradoxically I fished the Severn last week for the first time and never in my life have I seen as many anglers on a stretch of river
If you weren’t in a peg by first light then forget it
 
Joe Winstanley said:
That is a shame for the owners, the staff that worked there, and for the angling public. Steadily we head towards a total monopoly of angling stores by you know who. And that lack of competition will cost us all.
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To be honest joe. I have tried so many different businesses over my career, (and always failed, )I feel for the owners.
 
I was shocked when Total Angling in Shrewsbury was taken over by Angling Direct a few weeks ago. This was the one remaining Angling shop in the whole area, serving anglers who fish both the Severn and surrounding carp lakes.

If that model cant work on an independent local level, with no other local competitors, then what can?
 
Walkers, future and now bobco in less than a year.
These ain’t 1 man bands either, they have buying power. Makes you wonder how many little corner shops have gone!
Jkl was my local. That went under last year. Very sad!

We’ve only got ourselves to blame though. No one travels anywhere. The world has gone lazy
The majority of us click buttons now and penny pinch online.
 
Neil Blood said:
I was shocked when Total Angling in Shrewsbury was taken over by Angling Direct a few weeks ago. This was the one remaining Angling shop in the whole area, serving anglers who fish both the Severn and surrounding carp lakes.

If that model cant work on an independent local level, with no other local competitors, then what can?
Click to expand...

Richard Isaacs said:
Walkers, future and now bobco in less than a year.
These ain’t 1 man bands either, they have buying power. Makes you wonder how many little corner shops have gone!
Jkl was my local. That went under last year. Very sad!

We’ve only got ourselves to blame though. No one travels anywhere. The world has gone lazy
The majority of us click buttons now and penny pinch online.
Click to expand...
Whilst that is very true Richard and I am guilty of that too but the margins in tackle are a bit off. Stuff on a rack are cheap, have healthy margins but need vast repetitive sales to generate meaningful revenue. Rods on the other had are dear to buy, display for who knows how long then the profit, if any, is eaten away by vat etc. 50 % sound great but for slow moving rods it's economically unrealistic. Sorry that's just me being peed re bobco but I have a pal with a tackle shop so know a little on the subject, if not much.
 
One of my local shops decided to close its doors a couple of years ago. It wasn’t because they were broke, but because after 25yrs or so they were sick and tired of anglers’ attitude. I mean I know it’s Yorkshire and all that, but they’d drive half an hour from York to buy worms at BobCo to save 10p a kilo. Seriously?!!? 🤦🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️
 
Back in the day if you wanted some, say, swivels, you would have no option other than to visit your local tackle shop and hope that they had your favourite make in stock (and what a nightmare for tackle shop owners; they can't stock every brand or swivel or hook, etc) so you hoped for the best) and while you were in there buying your swivels you then made a load of impulse purchases at the same time.

Now, why drive for half an hour or more to your favourite tackle shop to buy your swivels not knowing if they will have the right brand when you can go online and in less than a minute have them winging their way to your front door?

Less footfall for the tackle shops means less business means less profit. I think anyone that actually wants to own a tackle shop must be clinically inane anyway but the way things are they have no chance.
 
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