Newcomer to market: ‘Our jigs are better than lead alternatives’

Restrictions on lead are coming, one way or another, so it pays to start shopping for alternatives now. Step forward the PIVIT brand and its jigs that don’t only match lead but out-perform it.

Before arriving at ICAST to mark his company’s entrance into the conventional fishing market, the owner of Zoe Angling Group admitted he would have been happy to have held five ‘good conversations’ with visitors to its booth over the three days of the show. Staggeringly, it logged more than 300 buyers and members of the media, including some of the biggest retailers in the North American industry who came to view Zoe’s PIVIT Fishing range of environmentally-friendly Trailer jigs and rigs.

Jeff Coffey (main image), Founder and CEO of the Group, told Angling International: “We did not know what to expect, but the reaction was overwhelmingly positive. ICAST was an opportunity to introduce ourselves and tell the world we exist. No one knew us as Zoe Angling Group. We are known as Fair Flies, the fly fishing brand. We have been planning this move into conventional fishing for the last eight years and reaction to the PIVIT range was crazy, but very encouraging.

“I embarked on a mission to solve a problem that no one knew was a problem – coming up with a range of lures that are better than lead. We have provided a
solution for anglers before an inevitable lead ban is enacted in countries across the world. Already Europe is bracing itself for impending legislation and it will happen in the North American market sooner rather than later.”

PIVIT has been a long time coming. “This wasn’t a case of ‘Hell I’ve got an idea – let’s go into production in three months’. We spent a lot of time on it, looking at different
angles including working with NASA engineers on alloys,” says Coffey. “We went deep on the science for this thing.”

Coffey admits that he was nervous about the reaction from buyers especially in the light of recent comments from the American Sportfishing Association (ASA) which voiced its opposition to a move by the US Fish & Wildlife Service to ban lead on its waters. “I felt we might be looked upon as a bunch of tree huggers. The reaction could have been negative. However, nothing could have been further from the truth.”

Coffey revealed that he held constructive discussions with some of the major retailers in the US at ICAST and added that he believes anglers will see PIVIT lures on the shelves of big box stores in the near future. “One major player in the market, which has pledged to source more environmentally-friendly products, came to our booth and told us that after walking the entire floor at the show, PIVIT was the only product that fitted its green mandate.”

Coffey has lofty ambitions for PIVIT. “In the next year we want to see full international distribution. We already have relationships in Canada from British Columbia across to Nova Scotia, a Dubai-based distributor covering the Middle East, and are in conversations around Europe, Australia and New Zealand. “We have unlimited scalability for these products. If we need to produce a million units a month we can do it. We are primed and ready for this.”

Coffey added that the company will be back at ICAST next year with a booth that will be at least double the size of this year’s. “We loved being at ICAST. We came for the conversations and that’s what we got.”