SPRO Fishing Tackle

Spro began life in 1994 as a European distributor for the Japanese Gamakatsu brand. However, not long after the company’s life began, Spro own brand products began to be manufactured, and two decades later it has a catalogue of over 15,000 products.

Based in the Netherlands at a mid point between Rotterdam (one of Europe’s largest harbours) and Amsterdam (one of Europe’s larges airports), it is in the prime location for Europe wide product distribution. Not only did this please Gamakatsu, which now had its own way of distributing products to the West, but it was also a key part of Spro’s growth in the tackle industry. Without this expert location, it could never have grown to be the predator tackle player it is today.

Only three short years after the company first started manufacturing and distributing tackle, it opened its first American distribution centre. This distribution centre still services the whole of America from its Georgia base, and distributes both Gamakatsu and Spro branded products to the USA’s angling community. By 1999, the company had also opened up a distribution centre in Germany. Germany is one of the largest fishing markets in the whole of Europe and the Weimar distribution centre allowed it to effectively distribute to the whole of the country from a central location. As recently as 2010, the company opened up a Czech distribution centre to better serve the growing Czech market with its top class fishing tackle.

Spro is unique in its approach to product design, as it has an incredibly similar product range across the whole of Europe. This means that you can walk into almost any European tackle shop and pick up your favourite Spro product – perfect for when you’re angling abroad and realise you’ve left a key piece of terminal tackle at home. However, this tactic also means that the products it has released have had exponentially more time spent on them in the development process, as it isn’t concerned about making almost identical sister products for the different European countries. The only distinction it has ever made in its product catalogue has been between American and European products, as it recognises that American and European angling styles differ vastly.

It’s staggering to look at how much the company has grown in the last two decades, especially when you take into account that it was never meant to be a brand in its own right! The company offers a vast range of products that encompasses all the angling essentials including rods, reels, line, nets, and a whole host of terminal tackle. The only products it doesn’t produce are hooks, as it prefers to leave that area of the market in the capable hands of parent company Gamakatsu.

To date, the RedArc reel series has been the best selling product line Spro has manufactured for its European market. Originally released in 2004, the success of this product has meant that is still a huge part of the business. Billed as front drag reel, the RedArc is one of the most reliable performers under pressure on the European market.