ABU Garcia

Early history

AB Uhrfabriken began at a factory located near the Mörrum River, in Blekinge, Sweden. The company, founded in 1921, originally manufactured watches, telephone timers and taximeters. However, the founder's son, Göte Borgström, a fishing enthusiast, soon redirected its focus towards fishing reels during World War II, when demand for those products grew scarce. The reigning outdoor sports participant distributing and manufacturing firm THE GARCIA CORPORATION USA 1947-1978 was the largest fishing tackle company of its time, formerly known under the earlier name Charles Garcia & Company New York City. The Garcia Corporation started importing and marketing ABU's many reels in the 1950s, including the famous Ambassadeur reels. Garcia was already the leader in fishing tackle importing, marketing and distributing the famous Mitchell 300 spinning reel from France since 1947. Garcia Tackle Company 1979-1980 was a short-lived partnership between ABU and MITCHELL S.A. of France and in 1980, ABU AB acquired New Jersey based Garcia Tackle Company and changed their name to Abu Garcia. Mitchell S.A. would go their own way, but the two brands would join together again under the Pure Fishing banner only again to be sold to the Jarden Corporation in 2007. In 2016 Newell Rubbermaid acquired Jardan Corporation

Modern developments

ABU Garcia introduced a series of fishing reels and related products in the early 1950s. The Swedish-built ABU 444, the company's first spinning reel, was introduced in 1955, followed in 1965 by the first model of the Cardinal series of spinning reels.

Beginning in 1957, the company also became known for its advanced spin cast reels (Abumatic) featuring several engineering innovations such as level-wind mechanisms (oscillating spools), under-rod spin cast reel designs (the Abu 500 series) and improved drags for fighting larger gamefish. The famous Ambassadeur series of bait casting reels, which utilized advanced metal alloys, ball-bearing friction interfaces, and precisely-cut gears, was introduced at the New York World's Fair in 1964, and subsequent Ambassadeur models are still produced by the company.

The professional angler Paul Gustafson worked for seven years as chief angling consultant for ABU Garcia.

Today they still continue the Ambassadeur line, along with a branched-off line of low-profile cast reels, the Ambassadeur Revo.

Collections

There are collectors of ABU equipment.

ABU Garcia Collectors from all around the world choose to buy, sell and exchange rare items on popular auction sites such as eBay.com and Tradera.com (Swedish). Rare items can fetch thousands of dollars. Specialist sites exist to aid finding these items such as Auction Angler.

Publications that aid the collector of ABU Garcia merchandise include 'The Ambassadeur and I' and its sequel 'The Ambassadeur and I Final Chapter' both by Simon Shimomura. There is also a book titled 'Vintage Fishing Reels of Sweden' by Daniel Skupien that contains a large amount of valuable information on ABU Garcia fishing tackle, as well as a comprehensive work detailing the history of smaller Ambassadeur reels,´'Small Ambassadeurs: The Legendary Light-line Fishing Reels: The Ambassadeur 2500C, 1500C and related Models' by authors Espen Sjaastad and Karl-Eric Svensson.