Salmo by Fox. Interview with Piotr Piskorski!

 

Andy Arif: Hello Piotr, after 25 years you have decided to sell Salmo company to Fox International.  Why?

Piotr Piskorski: You know how it is – life! I am now 55 years old and a few years ago I have considered what to do with the company I created. I have two sons, but they have chosen their own ways, with no engagement in fishing. Last year, during the ICAST show in Orlando, David Algar – CEO of FOX-  came with the proposal of joining our brands. So, I needed an answer, which should have come shortly after our meeting, and that was when I decided that this fusion is good for the brand, for me and for my family. Looking back, I believe I’ve found a good answer.

 

 

PP: I am still Director in Salmo Company and also President of Board. I have been also offered the position of FOX director, which is a great honor for me. I am sure that I can help FOX Rage to better adjust their products for the European and International market. 

 

 

 

 

PP: I think it might work. We are talking about markets where Salmo have a good distribution, but FOX is unknown for the time being. But of course, it all depends on the  Salmo distributors on these markets and their interest in selling FOX products. 

 

 

 

PP: We can come up with answers for all these questions after EFTTEX show, which is held in Amsterdam, between 16^th – 18^th of June. Our main goal is to improve availability of Salmo products in all places where they are hard to find now. I would like to mention, however, that there is not a single place in the world where all (or ever a half) of Salmo lures are on shelves. For the moment, we have almost 2000 SKUs in our offer. So, there are neither shops nor even wholesalers ready to keep such high number of lures on stock. Anyway, we are doing our best to help distributors to adjust Salmo’s offer for each and every specific market.  At this point,  I strongly count on the knowledge of present FOX distributors in Romania. 

 

 

 

PP: I was a great pleasure for me to fish with Sylvain on Geneva Lake, last year. He is a really good fisherman and a very nice person. Unfortunately, I have no idea about  FOX Rage plans concerning fishing competitions. Anyhow, this would be a smart way to promote each brand, therefore they might increase their presence on this field. I hope that we will work out mutual policies for combined brands FOX and Salmo in this issue. 

 

 

 

PP: My plans haven’t changed too much for the second part of this year. I will have to visit FOX logistic center in Meer with my people, to let them understand better how things are working there. We also have a few interesting projects at Salmo and I hope to see results soon. Regarding trips – just after EFTTEX we have a meeting with Malin Musatescu and ambitious plans to make a movie about fishing in Holland. The original plan was to focus on small lures and big river. I am not sure that this can still be done, due to the increased water levels on almost all rivers in this part of Europe. With the help of a few Dutch friends, we have decided to try this project, no matter what. Holland is a great place for predator fishing. Pike and zander are almost in every piece of water. So, I hope we can find an interesting story to tell on the Fishing & Hunting TV watchers. 

 

 

 

PP: I think that we have to tell something to all these guys who are afraid that Salmo will lose quality or that it will be produced in China. FOX bought Salmo because they discovered in our lures special and unique features. As you know, all Salmo lures are invented, created, designed and produced in Poland, under control of managers who understand it very good, because they are anglers.  90% of the lures you can find on the market are produced in China.  Most of these lures are very similar to the original ones and still lots of them are poor quality products. So, FOX realized that, in order to be competitive on the market they need Salmo with its unique design, highest quality standards and fully controlled European production. I can assure all Salmo fans that they shouldn’t be afraid of any changes in quality of our products. Production will stay in Poland under control of my highly experienced staff. I also hope that, together with FOX designers we can soon expand both ranges of lures for brand new and amazing hard and soft lures. 

 

 

 

Well - you mentioned that availability of our products on your market is poor. This is hard for me to judge. But as I said, there is no wholesaler in the entire world having the complete Salmo offer. There are complaints on our distributor’s work on every  market, not only in Europe. Anglers have the same behavior in every country – they want to buy a special, new lure color as soon as they see it in internet, which is impossible in most cases. So, I would rather look at numbers. From my perspective, Energofish works very good both in Romania and Hungary. We are selling on these markets almost as many lures as in Poland, which is very good result. They did tremendous job for us regarding promotions. For sure they are one of the best among all Salmo distributors! Of course as a Romanian citizen you can rate it better than me but I don’t think that there is any other lure brand with better visibility on Fising&Hunting TV, for instance. Correct me if I am wrong. So, as I told you before, our collaboration with Energofish is working fine and I hope that all together (Energofish, Fox and Salmo) we can find a way  to make it better for the next years. (Piotr Piskorski)