We have opened some amazing shops in our time, but the interest, excitement and anticipation of the Angling Direct Guildford opening has been truly special. The day certainly lived up to the hype, and more.
The day started at 8am with an short speech from store manager Mike Peacock-Smith, welcoming everyone. The crowd queueing was around 250 people and had been gathering from as early as 5:30am. The ribbon was cut and the masses poured into the store. The shop, being ultra modern, with over 7000 square feet of space, was soon full of excited and slightly overwhelmed customers all sharing the same sentiments that they were happy to be part of the day and even happier that there was a ‘proper tackle shop’ in the area.
As customers took advantage of the huge selection of coarse, carp, predator, sea and fly fishing tackle, as well at the 10% and 20% off special opening deals, there was a real buzz around the store, which was testament to the hard work of everyone involved. Adding to the excitement of this awesome day was the incredible host of angling superstars that attended the event.
The line up of anglers was enough to rival any angling show with Alan Blair, Oli Davies, Tom Forman, Nigel Sharp, Dave Levy, Ian Russell, Simon Crow, Terry Dempsey, Matt Boast, Paul Codman, Chris Cox, Adam Reed, Gaz Hood, Mike Brown, Alex Grice and John Kneebone, all from their respective brands of Nash, Urban Bait, CC Moore, RidegeMonkey, Shimano, Trakker, Mainline Baits, Fortis and Avid Carp.
Throughout the day everyone posed for pictures, offered advice, gave free samples and offered a wealth of angling advice to all in store. We also had a guest appearance from none other then local legend Louise Bowes from Urban Bait and Gardiner Tackle, as well as Ron Buss and Nigel Botherway.
A huge thank you to all of them for making the day so special, and adding a fishing style ‘Hollywood factor’ to the day. As ever the day was covered by Hassan with various facebook live videos which you can check out on our facebook page.
The day was busy all the way through to the end at 6pm, and the team worked exceptionally hard to ensure everyone left happy, and looking forward to returning to the shop in the future.
We cannot speak highly enough of everyone involved in the process of getting the shop ready namely Lee Tomlin, Roy Allen, Matt Morris, Oliver Harper,the staff at the shop, and of course manger Mike Peacock-Smith.
Want to see what all the fuss is about? Well ,head down and check it out for yourselves.