PRADCO gets Whisker in deal

Outdoor brand supplier PRADCO has moved into the catfish market for the first time with the acquisition of Whisker Seeker Tackle in the USA.

Whisker Seeker is a premium brand of catfish tackle located in Grimes, Iowa and founder Matt Davis has committed to continuing to grow it and will now lead it as vice-president and general manager.

Whisker Seeker Tackle (WST) will continue operating from Iowa. 

Besides getting into a new species segment, WST will help PRADCO Fishing get into a business that is built on a direct-to-consumer model. It doesn’t sell to Walmart or big boxes and focuses on direct selling relationships with consumers.

PRADCO Fishing vice-president and general manager Bruce Stanton said: “Matt brings a tremendous amount of energy and creativity to the catfish category. He has built a business that has made quite an impact on the catfish market over the past several years.

“With PRADCO’s investment, we feel we can double or triple the size of the company and expand the product set into numerous new categories. As Matt likes to say, we are going to ‘dominate’ catfishing!”

Several other WST full-time team members will join the PRADCO family and remain based in Iowa.

These include graphic artist and marketing expert Josh Burhite, Andrew Lewellen in customer service, shipping manager Eric Allen, Shipping and product development and testing manager Chad Ferguson.

Brett Basik, PRADCO’s director of mergers and acquisitions, spearheaded the due diligence progress.

www.whiskerseeker.com

www.pradcooutdoorbrands.com

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