Hi All,
An excellent interview with the man himself in this month’s Carpology e-newsletter

The CARPology e-Newsletter Five-Minute Interview

This week we chat to Quest Baits main man, Shaun Harrison

“Shaun, can you tell our readers what your company has been up to over the past 12 months?”

Last September we had to move Quest Baits into larger premises. This was our third move in just two years. Everything has moved on at a steady rate since first putting the foundations of Quest Baits together in 2005.

We drew up a very precise five year business plan based around my long experience in the tackle trade and I am happy to say everything has gone to plan. This year (2008) was always the year we were going to make the baits much more widely available through a carefully selected range of shops. Leading up to 2008 we had supplied bait direct from our website www.questbaits.com and purposely kept the baits in just two shops. The Tackle Box in Dartford Kent and Walkers of Trowell in Nottingham, the shop I had worked in for 25 years prior to leaving to set this business up.

We have been absolutely delighted with the response from the shops after doing a mini nationwide presentation tour. Our baits have been accepted with open arms and the sales so far have been truly staggering considering the time of the year.

“What new products are currently available?”

“We currently run with eight different boilies, with matching pop-ups, hard hookbaits, dips, glugs, paste and pellets. The boilies are available in 10mm, 15mm and 20mm. To compliment the boilie range we also supply a lot of different particle baits, pellets and clothing.”

“What products are likely to hit the market in 2008?”

“Our latest edition to the range is the Liver B8. This is a bait I have been playing around with and using in my own fishing for quite some time now and I have put my head on the line and stated I believe it is the best bait I have ever made! Interestingly it seems to attract the larger fish too. It is a total meat based bait with no fish meals or bulk oils in it at all. My last two French trips I have only taken this boilie with me such is my confidence with it. In fact, last August I was lucky enough to catch two different 54lb carp on it from two different waters in just a couple of days! Neither of those carp would have ever seen that bait before.”

“Do you have any products that are completely out of the box, never been done before and refreshingly good?”

“Most anglers are amazed when they see our Maximum Action Pellets. A free video clip can be seen on our website in the ‘Video Vault’ section and it soon becomes obvious why we call them the Maximum Action Pellets. The short clip we show was filmed in February using tap water which is obviously close to the winter water temperature. Nothing has been exaggerated with heat. The small PVA bag you see literally explodes giving massive visual stimulation as well as the obvious flavouring of the water.

We supply a product which is very popular called the ‘Combi Tube’. This is basically a short clear plastic tube containing four separate pots of pop-ups, hard hookbaits, a dip and a glug. This sells for just £12.99 and is incredibly popular.

“Where do you see your company in 10 years time?”

“Let’s hit the end of the five-year business plan and then I will have a much clearer picture of the following five years.”

“Where do you see carp fishing in 10 years time?”

“Good question that one. I think we will see more and more commercial type fisheries springing up over here as they have all over France in the last few years. Carp anglers want readily available big fish and don’t necessarily want to put themselves out too much in order to catch them. We are very much in the idle age and I think we will be seeing more and more ready built comfortable holiday type fisheries springing up with toilets, showers, restaurants, the lot. I’m not saying this is how I want to see things moving but it is how I expect them to.”

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