St. Croix Rod Promotes Ryan Teach to Product Manager

New position bridges critical engineering and marketing functions for the benefit of St. Croix anglers, dealers and retailers

Park Falls, WI – St. Croix Rod, makers of the Best Rods on Earth®, announces the promotion of Ryan Teach to Product Manager. This entirely new position at St. Croix's Park Falls factory will seek and coordinate critical feedback from St. Croix anglers, dealers and retailers to help direct future product development.

Teach, the manager of St. Croix's popular Factory Store for the past two-and-a-half years, has undergraduate degrees in business management and product marketing, as well as a Master's degree in organizational development. It's his passion for angling and his enthusiasm for St. Croix culture and products, however, that may be his most important assets in the minds of St. Croix's management.

"From our perspective, Ryan's case is an outstanding illustration of the angler-centric growth of the St Croix brand, as well as our culture here of creating opportunities and developing talent," says St. Croix Director of Marketing, Jesse Simpkins. "Ryan's passion for not only fishing – but for the St Croix brand and our products – is evident in his work and will allow us to accelerate and add value to the product-development process within our business. This isn't just a win for those of us here in Park Falls. Ultimately, this move is a win for all of our anglers and dealers, and I cannot express how excited we are to make this addition to the Marketing Team."

Teach, who left a lucrative career with a Fortune 500 company and literally knocked on St. Croix's front door nearly three years ago, shares the excitement.

"I had moved back to my hometown in Southwest Wisconsin because of a family illness," recalls Teach, who used the time to contemplate his next professional move. "I decided to follow my passion in the fishing industry and St. Croix was the only company I wanted to work for. Thankfully, they saw my passion for fishing, for new product development, and for their brand and offered me a job running the Factory Store. As we got to know each other even better, I was offered opportunities to apply my knowledge and prove my abilities in new product development. The past two years have been incredibly exciting for me and I'm honored by the trust St. Croix has placed in me to deliver in this brand new position."

Teach began his new position as Product Manager on January 10.

"I'm working with Jesse and the rest of the Marketing Team, as well as Jason Brunner and Gavin Falk in Engineering. I'm also working directly with anglers and area sales managers… looking at industry trends worldwide and making sure our products reflect what our anglers, dealers and retailers really want. Best Rods on Earth® doesn't mean a thing if we just think they're best internally. St. Croix has consistently given anglers the upper hand in any angling situation – that's our mission and our legacy – and now we're in an even better position to do that with this new, dedicated position.

"This is a great time to be an angler fishing St. Croix Rods, and the best days are just around the corner," Teach continues. "We're getting way better in working with materials, supporting our anglers and dealers, and accumulating a great group of people to execute that. Even with all St. Croix's recent ICAST awards and accolades… anyone who thinks this is the best our company can get is strongly mistaken."

Simpkins and Teach tip their hand at what's "just around the corner".

"The next two months are going to be incredibly exciting," Simpkins says. "We'll be unveiling our new Legend Xtreme Series at the Bassmaster Classic in March, and these incredible new rods – the most sensitive rods we've ever produced – will be ready to go and immediately available to dealers and anglers at that time. Ryan has been at the core of this project since its inception, and it all points back towards listening to our anglers."

"We never would have tackled this project had our anglers not asked us to, and the new Legend Xtreme Series is going to be a monumental reminder to everyone as to how St. Croix conducts business… not engineering for the sake of engineering, nor marketing gimmicks, but by identifying real needs and responding with the best possible combinations of design, engineering and manufacturing problem solving," says Teach.

"As important as the Legend Xtreme launch is on its own, the process we've been through with this pinnacle series is going to benefit all St. Croix anglers, regardless of which of our rods they fish," adds Simpkins. "We've developed a process for measuring sensitivity, which is going to drive seemingly small changes to all rod series that will result in big differences for anglers."

Anglers and industry representatives are invited to keep up with developments surrounding the St. Croix Legend Xtreme launch at stcroixrods.com/pages/legend-xtreme-opt-in-page.