Jim Coates chats to Paul Devlin, the self-made tackle retail giant
CHANCES ARE YOU’VE PROBABLY bought some tackle from Paul Devlin. He’s the man behind Glasgow Angling Centre, the biggest game-fishing retailer in Europe. But how did it all start, and what does the man with everything fish with?
JIM Did you always plan to build such an empire, or did it evolve?
PAUL No, it was very much a case of one careful step at a time. I remember saying to my mum when I got my first shop, if I could just make a living from this, I’d be so happy. I really meant it, I didn’t have any grand ambitions, just to make a living doing what I enjoyed.
JIM Given the success you’ve had, I suppose there’s a risk the growth was inevitable, but I imagine there were big steps and scary moments along the way.
PAUL I left school before I was 16 and was working in Anglers All for John Glen (laughing). The shop was affectionately known as Anglers **** All because of the lack of stock! So, there was plenty of spare space, and I opened a little shop within the shop selling tropical fish, along with the flies I tied, worms I dug and weights I made. That gave me a little taste of it, and I moved the tropical fish operation into another shop, Airdrie Salvage, but the shop burned down soon after, which wasn’t a very lucky start from my perspective. I then got a part-time job at the Inland Revenue.
JIM So were you good with spreadsheets and numbers, then?
PAUL I was basically doing light admin, and looking for lost cheques — you know the one, where people say it’s in the post! There were computer systems, but they were nothing like as developed as today, so it was still surprisingly manual in places, and there was a fair bit to do, looking to see if cheques had been received and hunting down lost ones within the building.
JIM And at this point you were also working on your tackle stall at the weekends, right?
PAUL Yes, I think a lot of people know I started with a stall at the Barras market [an institution in the east end of Glasgow, a major street and indoor market on Saturday and Sundays]. It was great — hard work, but I really enjoyed it. I kept it going for about six years and moved from a stall to a unit inside, with a decent lock-up space, which was great. I was doing so well at the weekends that I decided to open my first shop — PD Tackle & Guns in 1988. I remember being terrified by the £80 a month rent.
JIM So you kept the Barras stall going alongside PD Tackle?
PAUL Yeah, it was just going so well at the weekends, and I enjoyed working, so it was seven days a week.
JIM What was the next step after PD Tackle & Guns?
PAUL I purchased a bigger space on Claythorn Street, just off the Gallowgate, near the Hielan Jessie pub. It was 6,600 sq ft and I remember walkin
