FEATURE | BUSINESS WITH...
DOING BUSINESS with FRANCE!!
In many ways France seems like an anglers’ dream – a long coastline, big rivers and plenty
of lakes plus some large and abundant species, not to mention key tackle innovators. With
around 3 million anglers, can you aff ord not to do business with France?
Renowned for its fi ne wines, elegant
cuisine and artistic vibe, France
is situated in Western Europe and
encompasses medieval cities,
alpine villages and Mediterranean
beaches.
Paris, its capital, is famed for its
fashion houses, classical art museums
including the Louvre and monuments
like the Eiffel Tower and has been a
popular tourist destination for more
than a century. Indeed, from an angling
point of view, it’s just as appealing
France boasts more than 400,000km
of rivers not to mention 3,500km of
coastal waters covering four seas (The
North Sea, Atlantic Ocean, The English
Channel (a Manche) and, of course the
Mediterranean).
France is home to a number of
iconic fi shing brands that have been
established for many years.
Garbolino made its fi rst fi shing pole
in 1945 under founder Henri Garbolino
and has gone from strength to strength.
The brand has masses of heritage and
credibility among French anglers and
rightly so, as it was this company that
became a pioneer of long pole-making
20 www.tackletradeworld.com
technology.
Sert bought Garbolino fi ve years
ago and now the brand is starting
to fl ourish once again due to more
investment – and not just in rods
and poles but also other key product
categories.
Sub-brands include Sakura for
predator fi shing in salt or freshwater,
Katusha for catfi sh and big game
fi sh and Prowess for carp and feeder
style fi shing, Sunset for ocean and
sea angling and its namesake, SERT,
countries with the help of its export
manager Johan Groeneveld.
Bait brand Sensas has been supplying
top quality continental groundbaits
to global angling markets for decades
and, over the years, has helped many
anglers and teams achieve World
Champion status in the coarse fi shing
competition arena
More recently Sensas has expanded
its portfolio of brands to cater for other
angling disciplines. Brands such as
Starbait, Pezon & Michel, Gunki and
The estimated number of anglers in France is
between 2.8 and 3 million taking in a varied
selection of angling diciplines
FACTFILE: FRANCE
Capital: Paris
Area: 643,801 sq km
(248,572 sq miles)
Population: 66.9 million (2016 estimate)
Currency: Euro €
GDP: $2.465 Trillion (2016 Estimate)
Time Zone: CEST/GMT+2
Internet Domain: .fr
International Dialling Code: +33
for recreational, ‘no-frills’ fi shing. The
company has an excellent distribution
network of key dealers throughout
France, Benelux and the UK, and is also
rapidly expanding into many other
Illex cater for everything, from carp
baits to specialist and fi nesse lure rods
to sea fi shing bass lures.
France is one of the only countries
in Europe where anglers can fi nd
ESTIMATED NUMBER OF ANGLERS
600,000 / 700,000 SALT WATER ONLY ANGLERS
1,600,000 RODS LICENCES
600,000 / 700,000 IN PRIVATE WATERS (NO GOVERNMENT AND DAILY LICENCES)
TOTAL 2,800,000 TO 3,000,000 ANGLERS
FRESH WATER 95 FEDERATIONS DEPENDENT ON FNPF (FEDERATION NATIONALE
DE LE PECHE EN FRANCE UNDER THE ECOLOGY MINISTER) FOR 3,700
ASSOCIATIONS
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