Omnia Fishing hands retail operation to third party

Omnia Fishing has announced a major inventory partnership that will see its retail operation handed to a third party.

The Minnesota-based tackle recommendation engine has agreed a deal with Thorne Bros – a major US supplier of fishing gear – which from the start of this month took over inventory for the company from its warehouse.

Matt Johnson (pictured), CEO and co-founder of Omnia Fishing said: “We have partnered with one of the most trusted names in tackle retail to make the shopping experience and trip planning better than ever.

“Our direct collaboration with Thorne Bros allows our team to focus on our tackle recommendation engine,. UGC generation, map-based shopping and subscription trip planning tools.

“As from November 1 this year Omnia transitioned to a purely digital company – our plan at the very beginning – and the site and app experience will only get better. We are hanging onto our talented merchandising minds to directly interface with Thorne’s buying team.”

Johnson said that the shift is a result of a survey of new, renewing and churning PRO subscribers over the last 12 months. “We found that people really love our trip planning and comprehensive mapping tools. The only negative common theme has been that we were not wide or deep enough in our stocking strategy since retail is a common and top-rated prop of the subscription service.

“We have not been able to transition successfully into multi-species without an inventory partner. Our solution has been to partner with a best-in-class tackle retailer that will provide Omnia with our unique shopping experience.

“We were both maintaining expensive warehouses with a 40% overlap in our tens of thousands SKUs. Now that’s in one location. Thorne immediately has a national audience and many millions in additional volume to justify growing inventory and operations at a feverish pace.

“Our site has now been populated with many more brands and products – and the expansion is just getting started.”

Omnia Fishing has also announced the launch of its second subscription, Omnia CORE, to complement its successful Omnia PRO.