Pure Fishing Overhauls Global Supply Chain With AI Planning Platform — A Signal for Chinese OEM Partners

Pure Fishing, the world’s largest fishing tackle manufacturer by portfolio breadth, has overhauled its global supply chain planning by replacing legacy systems and spreadsheet-based processes with a unified AI-driven platform — a move that signals how deeply the industry’s demand planning is being digitalised, and what Chinese OEM partners can expect as a result.

The company has selected RELEX Solutions to bring demand planning, master planning and distribution planning onto a single platform spanning its worldwide manufacturing and distribution network. The scope covers thousands of retail SKUs across brands including Abu Garcia, Berkley, Fenwick, Penn, Plano and Ugly Stik, sold through retailers, e-commerce channels and distribution partners around the world.

Why the Change Matters

For anglers and retailers, the investment is designed to improve forecast accuracy, increase fill rates and strengthen sales and operations planning (S&OP), particularly for products with long manufacturing lead times and highly seasonal demand.

Pure Fishing acknowledged that its existing planning processes relied on a mix of legacy technologies and spreadsheets, limiting its ability to respond quickly when market demand shifted.

“Our products have long lead times, so when demand changes, our ability to react is limited,” said Jay Schroeder, Vice President of Supply Chain at Pure Fishing. “RELEX’s demand planning capabilities stood out. A more precise demand signal will make a meaningful difference in how we manage supply and serve our customers.”

What It Means for China’s Tackle Factories

For the Chinese factories that manufacture rods, reels, lures and terminal tackle for Pure Fishing’s brand family, the overhaul carries three practical implications.

First, more predictable order flow. A unified demand signal based on point-of-sale data from major retail partners means Pure Fishing can commit to production schedules further in advance, reducing the short-notice order spikes that have historically strained OEM capacity planning in Weihai, Ningbo and other manufacturing hubs.

Second, stricter lead-time expectations. Under the new system, RELEX will use AI-powered touchless planning to reduce manual intervention while dynamically adjusting safety stock levels to reflect changing seasonal demand. This means supplier-facing forecasts will be continuously updated — and factories that can synchronise their own production planning with those rolling signals will be better positioned than those waiting for fixed purchase orders.

Third, a sharper divide between data-ready and data-lagging suppliers. Supply chain consultancy Establish, Inc. will support the implementation, helping Pure Fishing redesign its S&OP processes and manage organisational change. As the buying side of the industry becomes more analytically sophisticated, OEM partners with their own planning discipline — rather than purely reactive capacity — gain negotiating leverage.

A Broader Industry Trend

According to RELEX, the project reflects a wider trend among manufacturers managing extensive seasonal product portfolios, where disconnected planning systems increasingly struggle to cope with fluctuating consumer demand and lengthy production cycles.

“Pure Fishing is building the foundation for a genuinely mature S&OP process,” said Stefano Scandelli, General Manager, Manufacturing at RELEX Solutions. “Touchless planning and a unified demand signal will give their teams the daily support they need, reducing manual efforts and giving them valuable time back.”

The implementation is expected to give Pure Fishing a more integrated planning process across its global operations while supporting more consistent product availability for retailers and anglers. For the Chinese supply base that underpins much of that availability, the message is clear: the era of spreadsheet-driven ordering is ending, and the factories that embrace data-synchronised production planning will capture a growing share of the world’s most sophisticated tackle programs.

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