Industry news

A gentleman retires

During a career of more than half a century selling many of the top fishing and sporting goods brands to the KwaZulu-Natal retail trade, Alan Ross has made an indelible impression as a true gentleman with impeccable manners and a self-depreciating sense of humour. His values defined by concepts like honour, decency and your word being your bond typify him as a true English gentleman – yet his background is more Spanish than English and he has lived in South Africa for 53 years.

Born in Argentina in 1931, where his father was the agent and distributor for Slazenger, Ross’ teenage years were marked by the country’s change from landed class authoritarianism to the working class backed army coups that eventually saw Gen. Juan Peron and Evita come to power. After school, they young Alan went to work for the Slazenger company in England for two years, but he returned to do his compulsory year of military service in Argentina. Peron gained favour with the worker unions by restricting the profits that foreign-owned companies could take out of the country, which convinced the young Ross that a foreigner could only do business in Argentina by manufacturing a product for the local market. He therefore decided set out to learn about manufacturing tennis balls.

Jock Ellis had opened a tennis ball factory for Slazenger in Durban in 1951, where Ross joined him in 1954, after a stint at the factory in England convinced him that his South American sunshine-nurtured bones were not suited to endure the wet and cold climate.

Dunlop took over the Slazenger ball factory in 1960. "Dunlop Sport was a small company and a very good training ground," says Ross, who was put in charge of the sport division in 1967. Some of the well-known names in the SA sports industry came from this Dunlop training school – including a former SASGAM chairman Colin van Jaarsveld, current Hi-Tec SA MD Mickey Mallet, Dunslaz Distributorship co-owner Steve Gallienne, and many more.

Ross’ next promotion was to be appointed General Manager of Dunlop’s flooring division, which necessitated a move to Johannesburg. He not only felt out of place in Johannesburg, but flooring just did not have the same appeal as sport. It was with great relief that he accepted a transfer back to Durban and the sport division.

In 1977 John King, a good friend, suggested that he become the agent and distributor for King’s Sports wholesale division. Ross subsequently formed Alan Ross Agencies.

"As a salesman-rep you knew that at the end of the day what counted was the service you provided. It was quite straight forward: if you did not give them good service, they will not sign orders from you and you would not stay in business."

In those days, he recalls, the sports industry was a friendly environment where you competed hard, but also socialised with and talked to your competitors. Business depended on the relationships you built with independent retailers and there were no big chain stores.

"We were an old school type of company, where your word is your bond. We worked with a nice bunch of people," says Ross.

John King initially appointed him as agent and distributor for Daiwa fishing products. When Kings Sports closed twenty years later, Alan Ross Agencies were distributing many top international brands for them – while Daiwa was their biggest, they were also responsible for several other leading fishing brands, including the top class fly fishing brand Hardy (which later included Greys) and from the late 1980s, Mustad hooks. Sports brands like Hunts County (cricket), Harrows darts and Stiga table tennis were the responsibility of Doug Jackson, who had joined Alan Ross’ agency in 1988. They also handled a few firearms agencies, including Aya sporting guns.

When King’s closed in 1996, Ross was 65, an age when most other men retire. They closed the Alan Ross Agency and found work for all the staff members — Doug Jackson, for instance, formed his own agency to continue with the sports brands.

But being fit, healthy and still very much interested in the world of sport, especially fishing, Ross decided to continue with a few of his favourite brands under a new agency: AJF … the initials of his birth names Alexander James Frederico. He kept the license for the top class fly fishing brand Hardy and Greys, as well as Mustad hooks and Aya sporting guns. They also took on the beautifully crafted Wheatley fly boxes.

Since last year, Ross has been introducing Andy King, son of his old friend, to his business and clients with the view of King taking over the agency … thereby completing a business cycle. In March, King officially took over the AJF Agency, but Ross will stay on to smooth the transition. They have also been re-appointed agent for Mustad, which might make the transition a bit longer than anticipated, says Ross.

"The physical move is easy because our offices are about a kilometre apart," he says. "This means that Andy is able to continue using the same postbox number and e-mail address and the only details that will change are the physical address and the telephone and fax numbers." They are: 031 202 4571 (tel) and 031 202 4267 (fax).