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View Full Version : Hardy moves their fly reel factory to Korea



Bill Kiene semi-retired
10-16-2008, 10:09 AM
Had a good phone conversation with Hardy USA representative yesterday.

They are no longer using Cortland as their US distributor.

[b]uy moving to Korea they will lose some nostalgia but the facts are that they can afford to use a grade higher in the alloy and the machining in Korea is better than it was in England.

With their new situation their fly reels will be far less expensive.

For the Spey casters the large Cascapedia which was over $1000 is now under $500?

They will have original spec Hardy 'Marguis Salmon #1, #2 and #3' for $300 for Spey casters.

I believe the 'LRH Lightweight' will be around $300 too

They have some new English made Hardy 'Perfects' that will be in trout sizes only for now for $850-$950 due to British production costs and import duties.

The 'Bougela VI' 4" will be around $500 too.

Hardy is going to make a comeback in the USA and world market for sure now with competitive prices.

They have new fly rods too.

I think that moving production to Korea was a far better decision than going out of business due to high market prices.

Adam Grace
10-16-2008, 11:34 AM
As long as the machining is good moving to Korea is a good idea unless there are a bunch of Hardy fans that boycott Asian made fly fishing products. I am happy to know that I historic fly fishing manufacturer like Hardy will not be going out of business anytime soon.

Hairstacker
10-17-2008, 11:21 PM
It will be interesting to see how that works out for Hardy. . . . They are in a difficult position -- on the one hand, moving to Asia will obviously significantly cut production costs and allow their pricing to be more competitive. On the other hand, far more than most, the Hardy brand is closely linked to "tradition" and, for many of the fly fishers who are Hardy fans, that means English-made.

There was a discussion of this not all that long ago on the Winston board and I seem to recall some were downright hostile to the idea of an Asian-made Hardy.

Adam Grace
10-18-2008, 10:29 AM
Then those hostile snobby elitist types of guys should pay $600 for a English-made reel while other consumers purchase a nearly identical reel for about half the price :-) lol

Hairstacker
10-18-2008, 07:29 PM
Adam, that's actually not a bad idea. :lol: