Few, if any, businesses today survive the kitchentable dreams of their founders, especially in the outdoor industry where businesses come and go with the changing seasons. Yet, the leader in the outdoor equipment business has done just that survived, grown and prospered from simple beginnings to become the largest mailorder, retail and Internet outdoor outfitter in the world. Cabelas, the Worlds Foremost Outfitter of hunting, fishing and outdoor gear, was born somewhat inadvertently in 1961 when Dick Cabela came up with a plan to sell fishing flies he purchased while at a furniture show in Chicago. Upon returning home to Chappell, Nebraska, Dick ran a classified ad in the Casper, Wyoming, newspaper reading: 12 handtied flies for $1. It generated one response. Undaunted, Dick formulated a new plan, rewriting the ad to read Free Introductory offer 5 hand tied Flies….25c Postage….Handling and placing it in national outdoor magazines. It didnt take long for the orders to begin arriving from sportsmen and women around the country. In typical directmail style, each order was mailed out with a mimeographed catalog of outdoor items Dick and his wife, Mary, added to their product line. In the beginning, Dick and Mary ran the business from the kitchen table of their home in Chappell. Initially, Dick and Mary were able to handle the growing business with the help of temporary typists hired for mail, label and catalog preparation. However, by the fall of 1962, they realized the demands of their new venture needed fulltime attention. Dick urged his younger brother Jim to join the new company, which he did in 1963. Neither Dick, Mary nor Jim took any salary from the company in those early years. Instead, they invested in more mailings, new equipment and bigger facilities. By 1964, continued success and growth demanded a bigger and better location. The operation was moved from their kitchen table to the basement of Dick and Jims fathers furniture store and then on to various buildings in Chappell. In 1969, Cabelas was operating in a 50,000 squarefoot vacant John Deere building in neighboring downtown Sidney, Nebraska. Nearly 30 years later, in January 1998, employees moved out of the original Sidney headquarters building into a new 120,000squarefoot world headquarters. The twostory building, which is large enough to fit a football field on each floor, houses offices for nearly 500 employees. But even that facility was quickly outgrown. To accommodate the increased growth in all areas of the company, construction of a new, stateoftheart addition more than doubling the size of the worldheadquarters building was completed in the summer of 2002. The foundation of the company is its worldfamous catalog business. The company produces more than 76 different catalogs per year, including specialty books focusing on such outdoor pursuits as archery, flyfishing and boating, as well as massive 500+page Spring and Fall Master catalogs. Internationally known as a source of affordable, highquality outdoor equipment, Cabelas catalogs are shipped to all 50 states and 120 countries. More than 120 million catalogs are mailed each year with demand continuing to grow. Cabelas retail division operates popular destination stores throughout the country. As much wildlife museums and education centers as retail stores, Cabelas showrooms provide a truly unique shopping experience. After years of offering the best equipment and clothing to their customers, Cabelas expanded their horizons by researching and recommending the best outdoor outfitters. In 1985, Cabelas Outdoor Adventures was born and has grown steadily since to become the Worlds Foremost Hunting and Fishing Consulting Agency. Voted Best Hunting Outfitter in the Robb Reports Best of the Best in 1999, Outdoor Adventures works hard to help customers book worldwide hunting and fishing trips of a lifetime. With its Internet department growing by leaps and bounds, Cabelas has seen sudden growth in a new frontier. Besides the thriving ecommerce side of cabelas, which went live in 1998, the web site features a continuously updated content site, community pages, company information and catalog requests. Visitors to the site can also sign up for The Cabelas Connection email newsletter, informing them of new products, special offers and general outdoor news. To provide support for their cobranded credit card, which was started in 1995, Cabelas chartered the Worlds Foremost Bank, in 2001. Headquartered in Sidney with operations in Lincoln, Nebraska, the bank provides customer service, risk management and payment processing exclusively for Cabelas Visa cardholders. The Cabelas Visa card allows consumers to earn points back from all their purchases, which they can apply toward their next purchase at Cabelas. Filling catalog and Internet orders, as well as keeping the retail stores well stocked with merchandise, is the monumental task assigned to employees at Cabelas massive distribution facilities in Sidney, Neb,; Prairie du Chien, Wis. and Wheeling, WV. Several other Nebraska communities have also benefited from Cabelas expansion with customer relations centers located in Kearney, Grand Island and North Platte and a returns facility in Oshkosh. Cabelas Cabelas Outfitter Journal magazine and television show further enhance the companys brand image and provide the public with two entertaining and educational ways to experience what Cabelas is about. Both media outlets provide sportsmen and women the opportunity to learn what the outdoors has to offer through topquality production and informative features from the nations most knowledgeable outdoor journalists and personalities. Cabelas success hasnt gone unrecognized, as evidenced by the number of commendations and awards bestowed upon the company in recent years. In 2001, the Cabelas Catalog was ranked as the fifth most popular catalog, behind such directmail giants as J.C. Penney and Sears, in a Consumer Shopping Survey administered by Catalog Age magazine. Recent awards include: ShotBusiness magazines 2002 Retailer of the Year; Sporting Goods Business magazine 2002 Specialty Retailer of the Year and BizRate 2001 Circle of Excellence Award for outstanding web site performance over the holiday season. In addition, Cabelas employees were instrumental in naming the company one of the Top 100 Companies to Work For in Forbes magazines January 2000 issue. Yet another chapter in the companys history began June 25, 2004, when Cabelas CAB made its debut on the New York Stock Exchange. Despite the accolades and growth, Cabelas continues to embrace the original philosophy that the customer is No. 1 a philosophy instilled by company founders Jim and Dick Cabela. This dedication to the customer is just one of many reasons Cabelas is what the family always knew it could be a dream come true.

Telephone: 1-800-237-4444
Website: http://www.cabelas.com/