Current uncertainties could affect angling

Current economic and political uncertainties could lead to a reduction in the number of times anglers go fishing and put a break on their spending on tackle, according to Andy Torrence, Chief Executive Officer of Angling Direct which has more than 40 stores in the UK .

Speaking during an ‘Investor Meet Company’ presentation following the announcement of the company’s half year results to the end of July,  Andy Torrence described angling as a “pretty resilient pastime” but added: “History tells us that in times of recession people do continue to fish because it is actually quite low cost to access, but I think we would be unrealistic to think that people’s frequency of fishing isn’t likely to reduce”.

He added: “Some of our customers travel considerable distances within the UK and across Europe to certain fisheries. That is likely also to reduce and there is bound to be some delay in people’s decision making to replace high value capital items such as reels and rods. Those people who do replace these reels and rods are also likely to become even more price sensitive than they were in the past.”

Earlier in the presentation he said: ““The general market outlook has deteriorated further in recent weeks. It doesn’t seem like a day goes by when there isn’t some consumer concerning news flow, whether it is people’s energy bills, whether it is the cost of their mortgages, whether it is their pensions or indeed the ongoing general political turmoil. We do think this is causing consumers to be very cautious and we think that is magnified in Europe given the energy issues in Germany in particular, such that it is very hard to predict with confidence when consumers are going to feel able to start spending again.”

Written by Peter Cliff
With career in Public Relations and journalism, Peter worked for local, regional and national newspapers before moving into Public Relations. A regular contributor to several major angling publications over the years, he launched Fisheries.co.uk in 1999.