Riding the Bass Boom

Monday, Oct. 03, 2005 By BILL SAPORITO

The pros prepare to launch at the FLW championship, where the purse reached $1.5 million

JOHN CHIASSON FOR TIME

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The FLW moved the weigh-ins to Wal-Mart parking lots under a huge tent, where the sponsors were waiting with all kinds of kid-friendly entertainment. It was a sensation, so much so that the championship event had to move to a bigger venue. On the water, Jacobs outfitted each boat like a NASCAR racer, to the point where the outfit became unofficially known as BASSCAR.

Beyond the hoopla was the naked quest for sales. And it turns out the bassfest was good business all around. Genmar, Jacobs' boatbuilding company, moved more boats; Ranger continues to gain share in a flat market. Wal-Mart, meanwhile, got a boost because fishing made its stores more attractive to men, who have a tendency to shop well beyond Department 9--sporting goods--and visit other parts of the store.

The sponsors could see the knock-on effect too. Consider Fujifilm, the Japanese photo firm. Fuji hands out U.S.-made disposable cameras at every tour stop. Each camera can turn into two Wal-Mart visits--one to drop off the exposed film, the other to pick up the prints. Since Fuji runs the printmaking operation at Wal-Mart, it can give away the camera and still profit. Fuji's business in Wal-Mart rose 30% last year, and sales of most FLW-sponsored products have outstripped Wal-Mart's overall sales increases. Fishing fans, according to FLW's independent research, are huge food shoppers, accounting for 27% of the grocery purchases amounting to more than $200 in a given week.

Jacobs isn't the only guy trying to sell boats. In Springfield, Mo., another tournament bass-fishing legend, Johnny Morris, had established a mail-order company called Bass Pro to sell lures. Then, in 1978, Morris started a company called Tracker Marine that sold fully rigged bass boats (boat, motor, range finder, trolling motor, trailer, etc.) on a one-stop basis. Morris had opened a retail store on the site principally to give fishermen something to do when they came to Springfield to pick up their boats. In 1981, Morris changed outdoor retailing by establishing a combination sporting-goods store, museum and boat dealership that became the biggest tourist attraction in the state.

Bass Pro is enjoying a growth spurt that has in some ways taken its own managers by surprise. The company operates 27 stores, on the way to 50. It also owns a catalog and a website. The entire company will probably generate more than $1 billion in sales next year. The expansion is being funded largely by communities desperate to use Bass Pro as an instrument of economic development. "We used to do a new store every now and again," says president Jim Hagale. "Then a handful. Next year maybe we can do two handfuls." The city of Buffalo, for instance, offered $66 million in various incentives to get Bass Pro to crawl into the shell of a downtown arena called the Aud and build a gigantic store. A hotel and museum are also in the plans. The mission is nothing less than reviving that Rust Belt city on Lake Erie. It's an astonishingly tall order for an overgrown tackle shop to revive what had once been a manufacturing center. But at a time when there are few manufacturers for cities to pursue, the bass business looks pretty good. "You've got to go find something that drives tourism, which drives jobs and incremental sales revenues without impacting the infrastructure," Hagale says. Bass Pro is retail's answer to a chip-fab or an auto plant.