You can check out the classic Ambassadeur and all its impressive features on Amazon here Where Does the Name Abu Garcia Come From?ĪBU stands for AB Urfabriken, which is Swedish for Watch Factory Ltd., as ABU started out as a manufacturer of pocket watches in Sweden. The company known to millions of anglers worldwide as Abu Garcia was founded in 1921 by a Swedish entrepreneur called Carl August Borgstrom.ĭuring the company’s first ten years, production was focused on watches, telephones, and taximeters. But with the emergence of WW2, the demand for such products started to decrease drastically. It was then that Borgstrom’s son Gote, an avid angler, redirected the company’s focus towards fishing reels. In 1941, ABU’s first-ever fishing reel was introduced, and in 1954, the first Ambassadeur 5000 left was made and shown to the world.Īround that time, the New Jersey-based Garcia Tackle Company started importing and marketing Abu’s Ambassadeur reels in the US.

In 1980, ABU acquired the Garcia company and decided to change its name to Abu Garcia. Things looked extremely bright for the little Swedish reel manufacturer at that point. Unfortunately, things started to go downhill quickly from there, mostly due to a series of bad economic decisions and an unfavorable Swedish tax system. To make a long story short, it got so bad that, by the mid-90s, the company had only two choices left going bust or joining a larger corporation. Abu garcia ambassadeur 5000 reel series#.

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