U.K. Fishing Tackle Manufacturer Hardy Bros Taken Over By U.S.-Based Pure Fishing Inc.

U.K. fishing tackle manufacturer Hardy Bros "has been taken over by a U.S. rival" after 140 years, according to Brian Clarke of the LONDON TIMES. Hardy Bros' buyer, Pure Fishing Inc., a subsidiary of U.S.-based Jarden, "already owns many of the world’s leading angling brands, among them Abu Garcia, Penn, Berkley, Mitchell, Fenwick and Shakespeare." For all the "laments at the fall of an iconic business, Hardy desperately needs the vision, investment, drive and distribution networks that Pure Fishing will bring." Hardy "emerged from a gunsmith’s business founded in Alnwick, Northumberland, by William and John James Hardy in 1872." Hardy’s best-known individual reel was the Perfect, launched in 1891. Perfects, "like many of the company’s products and even the catalogues that listed them, have long been hugely and expensively collectible," with rare models of the reel and scarce editions of the catalogs selling for thousands of pounds apiece at auctions (LONDON TIMES, 8/5).