Freetime – A Time of Change – Issue 2

Freetime – A Time of Change

As managing director Brian Hale prepares to retire, he tells the Freetime story.

I was born on the family farm in Lecton, a small country town in South Western New South Wales.

My hobby was electronics and I pursued a career in that field after leaving High School. This meant moving to Sydney in 1969. I gained an apprenticeship in aircraft electronics and did four years training to become an aircraft electronics maintenance in the light aircraft industry at Bankstown Airport.

During this time the company opened a marine electronics division servicing the commercial and leisure fishing industry. I had a lucky break when the manager became ill and I was offered the management position. This involved selling marine electronic equipment as well as service and installation. The company had the Furuno Marine Electronics and Shakespeare Electronics agency in Australia at the time.

In 1973 I married my school sweetheart Lynne who had also moved from our country town of Lecton and was working Sydney.

In 1974 I was approached by Shakespeare to establish their fishing tackle and marine electronics business in Australia. This was a huge challenge as I had no experience in the fishing and tackle business and had to build the business from the ground up.

Just after I started with Shakespeare, Bert Rost, president of the Shakespeare International Fishing Tackle Division, visited the company in Sydney. During the visit Bert suggested that the quickest way to learn the fishing business was for me to move to Koln in Germany for a few months and he would train me and help set up a product range suitable for the Australian Market.

During that time I had the opportunity to visit many of the European Shakespeare operations to get an insight into how they operated their businesses. On my way home from Germany I visited the Shakespeare manufacturing operation in Japan and in Hong Kong.

Once back home I began the task of building a product line for Australia. We started with three series of the reels and four series of rods plus some pretty bad examples of lures made in Hong Kong. During these days the main played in Australia were Daiwa Olympic, Mitchell, Abu, Penn and local Rod manufacturers Butterworth and Jarvis walker.

Over the next 10 years I was instrumental in building Shakespeare into one of the largest fishing and tackle companies in Australia.

Around 1980 Shakespeare was acquired by Anthony Industries of California USA. In 1983  Bert Rost the President of Shakespeare worldwide resigned. What followed was a major upheaval with 91 Shakespeare executives resigning around the world to start Silstar fishing tackle companies in 15 countries.

In May of 1984 Mike Willis, one of my salesman and myself resigned from Shakespeare Australia. We established Silstar Australia P/L in July 1984. This was a joint venture between us, Bert Rost and Silver Star Korea. Prior to this Silver Star Korea had become one of Shakespeare’s major rod and steel suppliers. We then built Silstar up to become one of the major player in Australia. We secured the Manns lure and VMC Hook agencies which grew into major brands in the Australian market. We were the first company to source fishing rods out of China.

Then in 1996 the Silstar group in Europe was purchased by the Dutch conglomerate Hagemeyer. The purchase of Silstar Australia from us followed and the company name was changed to Freetime Group Australia. I continued to manage the new company which was growing and making nice profits.

1998 Freetime Europe decided to enter the camping and outdoor business and an Outdoors division of the company was established. This was the beginning of the end for Freetime in Europe, and after many management changes and some dumb decisions the company lost in excess of $200 million. The Australian camping business which operated for about 12 months was sold off and we reverted back to our core business of fishing.

In 2000 I was approached by Hagemeyer to buy back Freetime Australia, and after a lengthy period of negotiations the deal was done.

We retained all of our agencies and continued to grow the business and make nice profits.
We had been buying Silstar branded reels from Okuma for many years and in 2000 we were approached to launch the Okuma brand in Australia. We of course accepted.

Not long after this Aku Valta from Rapala made contact and offered is the storm agency in Australia. We had to make a decision whether to star with Manns or drop it for the Storm. Fortunately we made the right decision and went with Storm and thus started the relationship with the Rapala Group. In 2003 we received the award for the best International Agent for Storm by Rapala.

That same year I was appointed to the state freshwater fisheries Advisory Council to represent our industry, and still sit on that Board today.

During 2003 my partner Mike Wills became very ill and was away from the business for a lengthy period, and not long after his return he decided to sell his share of the business, giving us 100% ownership.

In April 2005 I received a call from Jorma Kasslin our CEO enquiring if I would be interested in selling Freetime Australia to Rapala. A couple of weeks later I jumped on a plane to Brussels to consummate the deal. Part of the deal was that I would remain the managing director for three years; this expires at the end of this year.

Rapala Freetime has grown substantially with the addition of many new brands and products from the Rapala stable. We’ve had to move to larger warehouse to accommodate this growth.

After much deliberation, I have decided to retire from the business at the end of December and spend more time with Lynne who has had a tough couple of years with illness.

We plan to enjoy our holiday homes in the Gold Coast and at Greenwell Point 150km south of Sydney. I plan to do a lot more fishing in my fleet of boats (so any lures that need testing will be welcome), play more golf and do some more travelling around our beautiful country. I will also pull out all the wood working tools I have been given as presents over the years and put them to work making projects I’ve been putting off for ages.

Jorma has asked me to stay on the board of Rapala Freetime Australia and I have gladly accepted the chairmanship. This company has been a major part of my life and I will be there to offer any help or advice needed in the future, and to make sire the company continues to grow and make decent profits for the group.

This business is a passion of mine and it has never been a chore to go to work. I would like to say a big “Thank you” to Lynne for her support and hard work over the years and also to my staff and agents in Australia. Their combined efforts have greatly contributed to the success of this company.

Finally I would like to thank the people of the Rapala Group I have worked with over the years for their support and friendship.
I wish you all the best for the future.

Brian Hale

Share on Facebook