Carbotex fishing line is the product of Balazs Filament Technologies (BFT) Ltd of Hungary. The family business started in 1980 with the production of raw materials for the plastic and tire industry. In the early 1990's the business expanded to manufacturing monofilaments. By the mid 90's the monofilament branch became self-sufficient. BFT was formed in 1996. Currently it produces almost 10% of all sportfishing monofilaments in Europe. BFT has lined up with partners in Canada, the Midde East, Australia and New Zealand.
The owners of BFT, Lajos Balazs and Miklos Balazs, partnered with their long-time friend Tamas Podlovics to form two US companies: Carbotex Import Inc. and Carbotex Online Inc. The first company is the sole distributor of Carbotex lines in the US and the second company runs the on-line sales business.
"We have been trying to break in the U.S. market for 2 years" says Tamas. "At first our goal was to get into one of the big retailer chains, such as Bass Pro Shops or be on the list of buying groups like Big Rock Sports. We didn't have much success. Everyone admitted that we had a high quality product, wonderful packaging, but nobody knew the brand name. I remember when the buyer of Cabelas told me to create demand for our product first, then he may think about carrying our product. We exhibited at the ICAST shows, made our name known in the industry, but it was not enough.
We attended the ASA sportfishing sumit in Florida, where I heard at one lecture that 10% of tackle sales are being done on-line. So I figured we could start small in the U.S. with our on-line store. We formed the companies, set up warehousing and shipping in NYC. BFT invested in the online business with the first 10,000 spools. We run our ads in In-Fisherman, and will start an intensive web campaign in late March. We have already received inquiries from companies wanting to represent Carbotex in the southern states. The orders are pouring in, more and more people get to know Carbotex lines and hopefully some of the retailers will realize the quality and profitability of our product, too. We'll have a special campaign for the 5000 tackle retailers in the US, as well. So all in all, we are on our way to create demand in retail stores for Carbotex. We are in negotiations with a venture capital company to invest $1M into Carbotex in the USA. The product has a high potential. It has always been premium quality, and it is very popular in Europe. Also, as China gets more and more expensive for U.S. companies to manufacture their products there, and as U.S. trade deficit against China is getting bigger, our product will be even more compelling. We have the capacity to manufacture 6 million spools a year."
Carbotex fishing lines made its official entry in the U.S. market in March 2008, with its first ad in the In-Fisherman magazine. The goal of the company is to reinvest its revenues, increasing brand recognition of Carbotex and emphasizing the high quality and reliability of the product.