The Group’s business, was established in 1985 in Rotherham as ‘Stephen Gross Flies’ when Steve Gross was 13 years old, specialising in the tying of flies and making fly tying materials for fishing tackle wholesalers. In 1988 the business moved into rented premises in Mexborough, Rotherham and in 1991 the business was incorporated as Lureflash Products Limited. It was renamed as Lureflash International Limited in 1997 and in the same year started to source its own branded products. In 1999 Lureflash opened its first retail outlet and mail order operation, ‘Yorkshire Game Angling’, in Thrybergh, Rotherham. Following the success of this initial venture, Lureflash launched its ‘Fishing Republic’ brand with the opening of a store in Barnsley in 2005 with an expanded product range for all angling disciplines. In the same year, the Fishing Republic Group moved into a large warehouse in Rotherham to serve its retail stores, mail order and wholesale customers. Since then, the Group has expanded rapidly, opening ‘Fishing Republic’ stores in Manchester and Hull in 2006, Sunderland, Scunthorpe and Sheffield in 2007 and Doncaster in 2008. More recently in 2011, the Company moved its Yorkshire Game Angling store to the Rotherham warehouse site and in 2013 it opened a ‘Fishing Republic’ retail store on the same site, which also incorporates the head office.