A.B.Urfabriken:
The Borgstom Family contribution
to World Sportfishing Excellence
In
the beginning,
there after in Sweden was....
The 1880
Halda watch factory,
on the
banks of the Morrum River at Svangsta,
bought by
Carl Borgstom in 1921 in order to create taximeters and
Meter for Telecommunication like the Teleur. After his
untimely death in 1934, his son Gote, took over the reins.
WW II in
1939, saw Gote's dream fail, and to our benefit the choice
between creating Anniversary clocks or Fishing Reels was
sound and the rest is History!
Scan 1
Scan 2
( Text in Swedish!)------>>>
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ABU Advertizing
Worldwide
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 Before saying
a word, all the information here is based upon facts
and ideas provided by my friend
Lennart (Len) Borgstrom.
He has at present
his own published book
in only the Swedish language, now in in
English
but out of print.
A much travelled and extremely
skilled fisherman
and family man, he in his own right, he could teach us lots
about fishing equipment and techniques.
Interesting image at left found courtesy
books.google.com . Click to read article
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Len here is shown in
the 1962 Garcia Annual,
catching Atlantic salmon on the Morrum river, which would be
my dream place to fish. He has been fortunate enough to
travel far and wide to indulge his love of fishing with ABU.
Here
Annika Borgstom
, Len's wife,
tackling up for the 1957 N&N cover
shot and
after having caught 2 fine brown trout,
shows prowess in angling.
Although A.B.Urfabriken eventually made
9 styles of reels, it was originally and ultimately in my mind the
baitcaster which is the cause of ABU's success.
Here an Australian article from
Modern Fishing August 1980
which brings newcomers
to appreciating the quality of the ABU marque.
Combos
were without doubt ABU's way of educating Anglers (both new and old)
into the most successful way to utilize their superb products.
Without
doubt, the almost complete, sequenced and fascinating source of
information for ALL things ABU has to be from 1948 with the Napp och
Nytt catalogs! These come in many languages issued at different
starting times. I collect the English Tight Lines version (missing
earlier than and 56, 57, 58. 60, and 63 issues) as well as N&N.
Look here for a page of interesting links.
Aways looking for a Russian, French , Polish
and Spanish
copy too!
Len
himself is such a trusting, considerate and sharing man, with such
technical expertise, vision and persistence and that one could not
help believe their (Gote and Len)
words as gospel.
Unfortunately the old ABU is no more. Why ? Read on (soon) in his
delightful text and understand the failings of government and if you
are in management, learn from his visionary techniques.
Significant years for A.B.Ufabriken are here.
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Carl's Borgstom's Prototype
Casting Reel
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(passionate fisherman, dev't late thirties) |
In
my mind, four of the the major milestones for ABU were 1.
Carl Borgstrom's decision to build fishing reels
evolving from his first attempt at a casting reel shown
here; 2. the fore-thought to fill gaps in
product lines by
Outsourcing; 3.
the hiring by Gote Borgstrom of Ake
Murvall who designed the Ambassadeur itself and 4.
the taking on the Japanese on Television with
respect to patent violation by Len Borgstrom!
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See his Ambassadeur
here
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The
primary reason IMHO, that ABU reached this position of
dominating the world angling scene is because they had multiple
facets to the brand name. Not only did they produce the world's best
tackle over a very long time period, revered by both the ordinary
common fisherpersons such as ourselves as well as
royalty (and
Len even taught the prospective Queen of
Sweden to fish)
They were the first
company to take a holistic approach to the marketing of fishing
beyond the commercial sense of the word. The
Golden reels
are testiment to the position, ABU's reels should be held up to. My
personal connection, whilst beginning in the 60's as a child saving
his pocket money to buy ABU Killer, Hi-Lo and Toby lures, became
more more two way when I began writing tot he company in Sweden, UK
, USA and Australia.
My early ABU
Correspondence Letters
1,
2,
3,
4
All
fishermen need a sense of humor.
Here a great story from the
past, recently submitted by Len Borgstom
and documented
in British CLASSIC ANGLING Magazine.
Keith Elliot
, editor (approval granted)
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Treasured
memories with mates in Northern Iceland 1978
Ralph Lafferty, CO
Ericson, Johnny Morris and Len. JM individual
Len is being inducted into the Freshwater Fishing
Hall of Fame in USA, for his contribution and outstanding
achievement in Freshwater fishing.
My
journalist friend Patrik Tjornmark wrote a
great story (in Swedish) about Len Borgstrom
and ABU and it is linked here...
As Len told me in his words...
Patrik was my guest at the ABU Cottage to make the
story. I did not fish because I wanted my guests to have the
first chance. I had invited Jan Sjöblom and
Olle Lidesjö from ABU to join
us for lunch. One of the Ambassadeurs which we used did not
function as well as I thought it should, so after lunch I
suggested to Jan that we go down to the river to test it. I
showed Jan that I could hardly cast across the river. I made
two casts and caught the fish pictured. That is why I was
not dressed for fishing!!
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Below
Len Borgstrom, ex owner and CEO of A. B.Urfabriken
presenting the beautiful twin reel 50th Anniversary set of
reels (Morrum and Record 5000 replica) to
His Royal
Highness King Carl Gustaf, King of Sweden.
Patrik's Photo Essay
on
Len Borgstrom |
Who
else but
ABU, produced such diversified catalogs
that considered conservation, youth education, rewards for record
captures, personal health, biology and environment of the target
species, fishing techniques and so on, in Napp och Nytt and Tight
Lines? No company that I know of!
Many of the
wonderful articles from the ABU catalogs, Tight Lines and Napp och
Nytt will be brought back to life to you here, as time permits. Just
a sample from 1959 eg Can fish really see colour? Angling , Fine
Medicine, and lots more with kind thanks to
ABU's policy of permitting reprinting given
due acknowledgement of the source of the material.
(Please keep producing these wonderfully educational catalogs
! ) To keep the fishing public informed and aware of not only new
and evolving product but also business data, newsletter
updates were released regularly, such as these from the 70's.
Page
1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6.
This child looks excited at a Swedish fishing competition! ABU saw
the fishing education of youth as being important to their core
business of selling tackle as well as the loftier goal of giving a
lifelong healthy interest to kids.
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Catalogs
with special thick cardboard inserts and spirally bound,
to help the dealers get to know new and emerging products
were also produced. A typical example was this 1970 Tight
Lines drawing attention to selling points of all ABU
products such as reels, rods, lures, lines and all sorts of
accessories including gaffs, nets, smokers, ice fishing
augers etc.
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More pages shown here
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The ABU Song was
noticed by me in the English Language "Tight Lines" ABU
Catalog of 1959.
Click here for the actual readable notes
Click here for the readable size lyrics
An interesting time
trip back to a very simple and enjoyable and non
-politically correct world !
Download of tune
here sometime?
Perhaps some
musical ABU fisher person might be willing to play or sing
it and record it for posterity as an .mp3 for me to upload
here as I am quite certain it is not currently published
anywhere ???
This has to be a
Gem!
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Having
never seen either the technically advanced
Modern
Abu Garcia Factory,
or indeeed the 40's era
Old
ABU Factory the
Abu Garcia
Museum or
The House of Salmon,
a few kilometres away, I am indeed in a great debt to my
friend Uffe Edefuhr who has lived in the vicinity and is a
great source of knowledge and photographs to me. It has
recently been supplemented by Jan Sojblom and I hope in the
not too distant future, I will be able to make this
pilgrimage with both gentlemen to Svangsta and experience
the associated delights of all things ABU that I have heard
of for 35 years or more. |
The
Borgstrom family
have indeed left an indelible mark on the fishing landscape and the
Sports Fishing world, even before the word was coined. We are all
the richer for their persistence in pursuing the concepts of quality
and innovation in face of the face of insurmountable difficulties.
My world changed because of them and I am an unashamed Abuphile of
long standing. Len represents our last living link with the
management from the glory days of the Classic ABU fishing
reel. Long may he live to pursue his new new activities!
Len
Borgstom's 80th birthday
In 2011, Management at the Svangsta ABU factory saw fit to celebrate
both Len's birthday and the 90th Anniversary of ABU factory on the
banks of the Morrum River, with the production of a magnificient
boxed set , comprising chrome Ambassadeur 5000 C accompanied by
watch, cuff links and tie bar. Fittingly Len was presented with
#1 of only 60 created for the special occasion. It is my fervent
desire to acquire one of these sets.
Len kindly shared photos of his treasured presentation.
