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FEATUREFEATURE
I
t’s no secret that China is no longer the number-
one destination for companies who manufacture
fishing tackle.While it is certainly still a stronghold,
many companies have looked elsewhere in the Far
East and globally to combat the rising labour costs and
increasing complications of the Chinese market.
However, no move has been more significant
than the one just finalised after two years of
meticulous planning and hard work – Finnish lure
giant Rapala VMC Corp is moving its current
Asian manufacturing units out of China.The new
destination? A brand-new, state-of-the-art factory
in Batam, Indonesia, that employs over 700 workers,
ready to go into full-scale production in an instant.
This move is a very significant one, as all of its lure
production under non-Rapala-named brands such
as Storm,Williamson and Luhr Jensen will now be
based here, headed up by two of the company’s most
senior executives.
Arto Nygren, currently head of the Rapala Group’s
three European lure factories, will be in charge of
manufacturing, while Aku Valta, who previously
worked as managing director of Rapala Australia, will
be in charge of all brands produced in Batam.
Arto, a production engineer who has worked at
Rapala since 1990, has been involved in some of the
biggest hits of the company. He also previously ran the
Rapala factory in Ireland in the late 1990s. Meanwhile
Aku, who has relocated from Australia to Singapore
for this new role, was also international sales director
of the company before taking the job in Australia.
“The costs of running a business in China are
escalating,”Aku explains.“We are not the first to leave
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Rapala believes that its new factory is the most modern lure-manufacturing plant in the world.
“The facility will be an ‘all-in-one-place
service’ specialising in all major lure
categories…”
Is this the world’s most
advanced lure factory?
and we certainly won’t be the last.
“But what is more important is that this
is the biggest greenfield investment that the
Rapala Group has ever made – two years in
the making.”
It is expected that the company’s
intellectual property is better secured in
Indonesia. Also, in the future the new
operation will not only be benefiting from
a cost-efficient, solid supply of local labour
but also of access to well-educated, English-
speaking Indonesian and Singaporean
professionals for managerial positions.
Despite the closure of the company’s
lure operation in China, some of its very
experienced Hong Kong engineers will be
relocating to Batam, including respected lure
designers Hiroshi Takahashi and Hironori
‘KD’Kitade among them.
One significant benefit will also be a
modern new factory by its sister company
VMC, a hook giant nearby in Batam, for an
uninterrupted supply.
“Although the factory has been developed
with sophisticated mass-volume production
in mind, the focus will be on the best possible
quality for price points,”continues Aku.
“The facility will be a rare ‘all-in-one-
place service’specialising in all major lure
categories: hardbaits, soft-plastic and
metal lures. It is investing into the latest,
most advanced assembling and finishing
technologies. Later on the special focus will
be on local and regional needs. Examples are
the popular Elbe Möresilda in Norway and
classic Ragot/Raglou brands in France.”
The transfer of lure production has also led
to the formation of Rapala VMC Singapore
Pte Ltd.The new entity combines the
southeast Asian distribution head offices with
the Batam senior-management office into
one major Asian hub, based in Singapore.
The southeast Asia distribution is run by
another 10-years-plus Rapala veteran, Swee
Leong Loke, who is also now in charge of
distribution for the entire Pacific area.The
units continue working independently but,
the one certain beneficiary of the Indonesia
factory will be the nearby Asia Pacific market.
Aku adds: “We will be combining the
very cost-effective labour with the latest
technological innovation and adding a bit
of Rapala’s time-tested, golden lure-making
tradition.That is a mix that should enable us
to build a global lure-making powerhouse
with the manufacturing process in all core
areas in our own hands.You can expect our
first results later this year, but the actual
flood of new Batam-designed and Batam-
produced lures will be hitting the market in
2015 and 2016, so stay tuned!”
The Batam factory can already claim
its first monster hit as the hardbait bass
lure Storm Arashi became an overnight
sensation in the US last year.The
Arashi lure series is set to be introduced
internationally at EFTTEX 2014.
Significant global brands produced in
Batam other than Storm, which pioneered
pre-rigged soft-plastic lures, include the
only global big-game brand Williamson,
salmon-lure brand Luhr-Jensen and
freshwater legend Blue Fox.
TTW goes behind the scenes
of the world’s number-one
lure manufacturer, Rapala
VMC Corp, as it undertakes
its biggest investment in
production facilities, moving
its entire Asian manufacturing
operation to Indonesia to
create one of the world’s most
modern lure factories.
The Indonesian-made Arashi lure
has become a major hit in America.