18 July 2003
Sage Acquires Redington Tackle

The Sage Rod Company of Bainbridge Island, Washington announced this morning that they have acquired the Redington Tackle Company of Stuart, Florida.

In acknowledging rumors that have been circulating for several weeks, Sage today confirmed that they have acquired the assets of Redington Tackle Company. Sage also disclosed that as part of the restructuring of Redington, they would be closing the Stuart, Florida location and consolidating the operation in Sage's Bainbridge Island, Washington facility. The Redington brand, however, is to remain distinct from Sage and will operate largely on its own footing.

"Where it makes sense to do so we will combine operations, primarily in the accounting, ordering and shipping arenas," said Travis Campbell, Sage's Manager of Business Development who will initially oversee the entire Redington operation, "and we should be in place and running here at Sage by August 11th."

Other key developments in regard to the acquisition include the following:

John Grippi, longtime Redington Operations Manager, will move to Bainbridge Island to continue in his role with Redington. "We're extremely pleased that John is coming along with the deal" continued Sage's Campbell "as in the short term he'll provide us with excellent input during the transition period and in the long term he will remain one of Redington's key managers."

All order entry, accounts payable and receivable, returns, warranty claims and shipping will take place out of Sage's facility and the new contact number for Redington will be 1-866-498-7243.

The acquisition includes only the assets of Redington Tackle Company and does not, at this time, include Redington apparel.

The two brands, Sage and Redington, will remain distinct. "We strongly want to emphasize that it is our intent," says Sage's President Bruce Kirschner, "to keep a firm firewall in place between Sage and Redington. Sage will continue to do what Sage does best--high end specialty products sold through specialty retail channels--while we pare down Redington's product offering to middle and lower end price points and focus it squarely on broader distribution. We think that is precisely what the market wants at this time."

For more information on the Sage acquisition of Redington, please contact Travis Campbell or Marc Bale at 1-800-533-3004.