Business Spotlight: Outside the Tackle Box

Every fisherman has a story.

Although Ralph Duda III doesn’t call himself an angler, the CEO and co-owner of Lil’ Anglers LLC has a tale to tell.

At first glance, it might seem a stretch to have professional athletes Anthony Tolliver and Brad Miller on the ownership roster. But the investor money validates.

Duda’s story begins in April 2012 with Anything Possible LLC, the parent company of Lil’ Anglers, that is now owned by Duda and friends, NBA player Tolliver, retired NBA player Miller and Jason Bauer, the chief financial officer who runs its Little Rock office. Marty Duda, Ralph’s younger brother, is also a part owner of Lil’ Anglers and serves as its chief operating officer.

“The idea was let’s start developing these ideas that we come up with, just take one and actually move forward with it,” says the Springfield-raised Tolliver, a childhood friend of Duda who plays power forward for the Detroit Pistons. “We saw there was a huge gap in the kids fishing industry, so why don’t we start a company that concentrates on kids fishing?”

What started as an indoor toy product is now Kid Casters, youth fishing rods with a water-soluble paper pouch attached to a plastic clip. The pouch dissolves in water and turns into a biodegradable fish-shaped sponge, paired with pictures on the packaging that include facts about each fish. Kits also come with a plastic practice plug, and the attachment clip is adaptable to other rods. The idea: Kids catch a fish with every cast.

The products feature licensed Nickelodeon characters Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Dora the Explorer and SpongeBob SquarePants, as well as a line of products endorsed by professional angler Jimmy Houston.

“Our first order, we booked $500,000 in sales, and we sent out $600,000 of product. Just stocking the shelves was our whole year,” says Ralph Duda, who says the company has shown approximately $1 million in sales already for 2015. “We didn’t make any money last year. We took a loss. This year, we’re going to make a little bit of money, but I think our cash flow, after everything, paying off debt, expenses, is going to be $150,000. We’re willing to do that for a year or two to create market share.”

Lil’ Anglers rents its 8,000-square-foot office and warehouse from next-door neighbor IS Fulfillment. Duda says the partners pay the company a flat fee of $7,500-$8,000 that also covers contracted service to fill orders for retail distribution centers and online buyers.

“We’ve been working with them for a year and a half, since order No. 1,” says IS Fulfillment co-owner Dan Williams. “Their business is growing every single month, and it’s reflecting in the sales.”

Landing the big one
Duda says the Kid Casters idea woke up a sleeping industry.

“We saw it, and we’re the only people who are really focusing on it,” he says.

That decision paid off. In 2014, Kid Casters products debuted in Wal-Mart, Bass Pro Shops and Toys “R” Us stores.

Duda says Kid Casters outsold competing kids fishing equipment at Toys “R” Us by 25 percent last year, and now it’s the chain’s exclusive youth fishing brand.

Also, Kid Casters gear is available in 3,000 Wal-Mart stores, up from 838 the first year, and it’s debuting at Academy Sports & Outdoors, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Cabela’s and on Amazon.com. The product is a mainstay at all Bass Pro stores.

“This year, we’re forecasted to do $4.2 million,” Duda says, adding that Lil’ Anglers is budgeting $140,000 on television advertising between Easter and August, to run concurrently with the company’s peak season. “It’s scaling very quickly, and next year we’re forecasting more, especially with the new technology we are bringing on.”

An innovation to the product line came courtesy of Paul Martin Steinhauser Jr., a former General Motors engineer whom Duda met at a fishing convention. The contribution from Steinhauser LLC, another company under the Anything Possible umbrella, is in the form of no-tangle fishing poles that drop the eyelets found on traditional rods in favor of a tube-like rod fed with fishing line. The rods have a break-action that opens to rethread line, and they accept any spin-cast reel.

Duda already is enhancing the no-tangle product into a deluxe aluminum model. Also on the horizon is a telescopic version of the no-tangle rods geared toward youth and adult anglers that will extend to six feet.

Springfield-based D3 Technologies engineers 3-D conceptual models for Kid Casters.

“When he came in, he had a functional prototype of metal blocks. He already knew how it was going to work,” D3 Senior Implementation Consultant Ryan Johnson says of Duda’s no-tangle rod. “From there, it was figuring out what it would look like, and how it would be produced.”

Johnson hand-sketched ideas for the rod before producing software models and using a 3-D printer to create fine-tuned prototype. Digital files of the designs were sent to Kid Casters’ manufacturers in China.

Angling for a cause
A product on the 2016 roster is kids fishing apparel, based on jerseys worn by professional anglers.

As a test, the company took 150 jerseys to a recent Bassmaster tournament in Columbia, S.C., and sold out halfway through the four-day event. Duda is projecting apparel sales at least equal to the company’s rods. Both products feature endorsements from Keep America Fishing, a nonprofit that lobbies to keep fisheries, lakes and streams open to anglers. The agency is in line to receive 2 percent of shirt sales.

“Not only is it for a good cause, but also it helps our initiatives,” Duda says. “My dad took me fishing probably five times in my life, but I remember every trip. These kinds of memories and experiences are fading in our society. With these products, we want to get kids outside and help build some appreciation for the outdoors.”

Miller, a former NBA teammate of Tolliver’s, invested $3 million for equal ownership last year. His longtime charity of choice, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, also receives a 2 percent cut and gets its logo on the youth jerseys.

“I was a little, I was a part of it,” Miller says of his connection to BBBS from his Indiana home. “I got matched up, got a big brother who I still talk to almost every day. It’s something that I’ve always done, whatever team I’ve played for.”

The business partners say the donations fit into their bigger vision.

“This is deeper than building a company to make money,” Tolliver says. “Of course, in order to have a successful business, you have to make money, but all of us are into giving back. Time, money, energy – whatever that may be. Anytime we can include different organizations and give back to them, that’s a huge part of we want to do.”[[In-content Ad]]