Winmau
Winmau (debate as "win -more " ) is a British manufacturer of dart boards and other articles for the sport of darts and is a sponsor of the oldest regularly held Dartturnieres, the Winmau World Masters.
In 2002 the company was taken over by the main competitor Nodor, both brands lead but their existing and established brand names in darts on. The company's headquarters is in Bridgend, Mid Glamorgan -, production of sisal discs, however, takes place in Kenya.
Origins
Winmau in 1945, named after the company founder Harry kicks, as " HA Kicks " was founded. The original elm dartboards were hand-painted, from 1952 onwards the fields and numbers were then printed.
Kicks set forth in the following paper discs, which he sold under the name "Keep Dry". The name "Keep Dry" stemmed from the fact that the disks in contrast to the known elm discs did not have to be watered. 1960, the brand name "Keep Dry" was sold to Scott dartboards of Southend, a company that had one that specializes in paper targets.
In the early 1960s were two sons of the company founder ( Harry Jr. and Ian ) into the company. Around the same time the patent of the company Nodor ran out on sisal disks, and so they began with the production of sisal (English Bristle boards ). The company name (company) was changed to " HA Kicks and Sons ".
1973 succeeded the company founder Harry Kicks Senior a sponsor contract with the British Darts Organisation ( BDO) negotiate: HAKicks dartboards were the official BDO boards now and were thus represented in many international competitions. The mid-1970s changed the company kicks in Winmau ( an acronym of the name of his wife, Winifred Maud ).
Financial difficulties
When the darts boomed in the 1980s, initially benefited significantly from this Winmau boom. Kicks senior died in 1984 and his five sons led the company continued together. However, the company experienced several years with financial losses and got into trouble. In addition, the company's headquarters in 1989 had to Haverhill, Suffolk, to be laid.
1993 you asked the company Accudart, which led the sales from Winmau in the USA, for financial help to keep the company liquid. Ron Kurtz, owner of Accudart agreed, and subsequently became the majority owner in the company. He led the company within two years back into the profit zone.
The competition with Nodor
Nodor was founded in 1919 by the chemist Ted Leggatt as a company for the production of clay modeling. The company did from the fact that the mass was odorless (English " No Odour "). 1923 produced one a dartboard made of clay, which, however, could not prevail against the usual ( manufactured by Winmau ) elm boards, so you went over it after about a year to likewise finished elm dartboards. 1928 was added in the manufacture of brass arrows.
1931 was Frank Dabbs Leggatt his idea for a new dartboard design, namely to make the surface of individual fibers. Leggatt and Dabbs brought the idea to eventually patent maturity, and in 1935 presented to the " Nodor Bristle Dartboard original ", the first Sisalscheibe as they are now standard. Around the same time, established the "pattern" with the target fields are located on the disc, the international standard.
Nodor developed sisal constantly, until the known form today with the clamp -free bulls-eye, but in the so-called blade designs ( embedded in the board wires ) was technically obsolete by competitors Puma Darts.
Takeover
After 30 years of hard competitive struggle Nodor has finally taken over the company Winmau 2002. Since Nodor had already shifted the production of sisal in 1999 to Kenya, Winmau moved a year after after the takeover and moved the Sisalfertigung also to Kenya.
Both brands retained their established brand names in darts. They also sponsored more athletes like Andy Fordham and Trina Gulliver, and major tournaments such as the Lakeside World Championship and Winmau World Masters.