EFTTEX: Meet the OEM supplier who has already tested your next line
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Plastools says it has two advantages over line suppliers competing with it for business in Europe: its location in northern Italy that puts it within a convenient two-hour flight of most of its customers, and an owner completely at home on the riverbank.
Moira dal Pozzo (above) will once again be bringing her team to EFTTEX in June and, while she is a familiar face on the show floor (and also the awards stage), she admits that not every customer knows about her long-time passion for fishing and how it ultimately results in better products for their catalogues.
“I took up fishing when my father brought me into the business because I felt it was important to understand what we are supplying to our customers,” dal Pozzo tells Angling International during a call to her office near Bergamo in the Lombardy hills. The call has been scheduled to discuss the new products that Plastools will be bringing to Barcelona, but the conversation has spilled over into how those products are brought to market.
“I fish two to three times a month during trout season, and I think that makes me different to other heads of OEM businesses,” dal Pozzo says. “We are lucky to have some of the best mountain rivers for trout in all of Italy, so I fish for pleasure with my family, but also for work. I get to see first-hand how our new lines are performing.”
That passion for fishing also means something else. Because during her 30-plus years at Plastools, dal Pozzo has cultivated connections with a community of anglers across Italy. Anglers who are at home on lakes, rivers and the sea, and who specialise in feeder fishing, fly fishing and carp, and who dal Pozzo uses for blind-testing new products. Thanks to her own fishing knowledge, she understands what functions she is testing – and what the feedback means when those anglers report back.
“I supply them with new lines, tell them nothing about them and ask them to fill in a sheet of questions,“ she explains. It means Plastools is marketing real-world solutions to its B2B customers and not simply new materials.
And this year it means two lines in particular for OEM customers: a Super Sinking Line and a Zero Memory Line, both entered into the EFTTEX New Product Awards sponsored by Angling International.
The Super Sinking Line is engineered with an ultra high density material to ‘sink faster than any standard line’ and is designed to give anglers more control by getting lures to the strike zone quicker. It sinks to 20 metres in three seconds and visitors to EFTTEX can get a sense of that speed at booth D10 where dal Pozzo will have a clear bowl of water for watching the line descend. After months of testing with her angling friends, she says that‘s all she will need to persuade show attendees that Plastools has another award-winner on its hands.
The Zero Memory Line has been developed for ‘no coils, no tangles’ but is also typified by Bicolor Technology where 50cm sections of black and transparent line alternate with each other. Their different densities mean the black sections sink faster, giving the line a more natural wave motion which enhances the swimming action of any lure.
Joining the new lines on the Plastools booth will be the Free Lead system of weights crafted from a new raw material developed over years by dal Pozzo and her team in Bergamo. “It is non toxic and can be moulded into any shape,” says dal Pozzo, who clearly feels that the time has come for her product in Europe. “Lead is going to be banned from sale, angling clearly needs to explore alternatives,” she adds.
And if you need convincing outside the three days of EFTTEX, well, there is that invitation to make the short trip to the spa town in northern Italy where Plastools has its base. For dal Pozzo it is the other great advantage she holds over Asian competitors, and she is determined to use it. “Your new range of lines could be settled in a day,“ she says. And, who knows, if you time your visit right, you might even get the chance to go fishing with your new supplier…
