New Game Country owner hopes to resurrect long-time Albany business

ALBANY — The days of seeing Game Country deer feeders for sale in a Cabella’s catalogue might be long gone, but its new owner, Texas hunter Terry Leggett, is trying to make sure the Albany company doesn’t suffer the same fate.

That’s not just because he and thousands of other outdoorsman can’t imagine never using a Game Country feeder again, but because of the loyal employees who have devoted the last 30-plus years making what Leggett says is the “best feeder out there, period.”

Leggett, a CPA and former Marine, has spent the better part of the last three years pouring his own resources into resurrecting the business.

“I’m trying to make this thing work, but it isn’t about me,” Leggett said. “It’s about Larry and Frances and everyone else. My goal is to take care of them. They’re invaluable as far as I’m concerned.”

Those employees are Tommy Cook, who works as needed cutting the metal casing used in the manufacturing of the feeders; Frances Powell, who also works as needed to build the operating circuit boards and place them in the casings; Frances Jordan, a 70-year-old Dawson resident who keeps the books on a part-time basis, and Larry Sellers, “a jack of all trades” technician who Leggett says is the main reason the company is still able to function.

“Larry, he does everything,” Leggett said. “He’s here every day making feeders, answering the phones, placing orders, just keeping this place going. We just couldn’t survive without him.”

Sellers and Jordan have been with the company since original owners Bill and Arnette Sanders turned Data Signal into Game Country. Sellers said William “Bill” Sanders, a Georgia Tech-trained electrical engineer, started Data Signal in the late 1970s and built it into a successful communications company.

“We used to make all kinds of encoders and decoders and phone patches and rural telephone systems, control heads, custom-made phone patches; it was a pretty high-end company,” Sellers said. “I first came to this company in 1981 and then left in 1985. I came back here waiting on Cooper Tire to open and thought, ‘Well, let me see if Data Signal’s still here.’ I came back and I haven’t left since.”

Shortly after Sellers returned in 1990, a technology change also changed the company. “Cell phones came along and, well, there goes that product line right out the door,” Sellers said. “Data Signal kind of petered out because of the cell phone business, so Mr. Sanders had to figure out, ‘What are we going to do now?’

“He loved to hunt and things like that so he started going to all these different shows and all like the Buck-a-Rama up in Atlanta, just to see what was out there that used electronics because he had a degree in electronics. He discovered deer feeders and saw what people had and he said, ‘Well gosh, I can do that better and cheaper.’ And that’s how we got started in the deer feeder business.”

Sellers said Sanders designed an easily programmable deer feeder with electronic mechanisms tied to a photocell. Users were able to set a feeder and leave it without worrying. “It offered varying feed times,” said Sellers. “It uses a photocell to tell it when to go off and all the feed times are set to that. It’s very reliable.”

Sellers said that Game County feeders became popular because of their timing mechanism and durability, eventually becoming a leading product sold by some of the largest outdoors companies, including Cabella’s, Bass Pro Shops, Gander Mountain and Sportsman.

“Just to give you an idea, when we were in Cabella’s and Bass Pro Shops, were really did well,” said Sellers, holding some invoices from 2000. “Every spring they would send us all the orders for the coming months, what they needed. To give you an example we’d get orders like this one for 300 for the month, and then the next month 106, then 108, then 1,188, this one’s for 840. And that was just Cabella’s. We were hopping. We had about 25-30 people working full time.”

Competitors, however, starting having their components manufactured in China, which allowed them to meet the inventory demands of companies like Cabella’s.

“We haven’t sold to these companies since back in 2004, 2005,” said Sellers. “What happened with Cabella’s and Bass Pro Shops, a couple of factors, but one of the biggest factors was they used to be privately owned companies (and) they went public. At that time we had to deal with the stockholders and shareholders and all that and they wanted to make money so they started to get a lot of our competitors started having the product made in China. That put a big hurt on us, because they were more concerned about profit than they were with quality. We had one of the best quality feeders out there.”

Also a factor, was the Sanders weren’t interested in expanding the company to generate the inventory needed to meet the demands the larger retailers had for available product.

“The Sanders could have expanded; this could have been a huge operation, with hundreds of people, but they weren’t willing to go that far with it,” said Sellers. “At their age, I couldn’t blame them. I mean, who in their 70s wants to start something that huge? Bless them they were good people, I’ve known them a long, long, long time, probably 30 years, but once we got out of Cabella’s and Bass Pro Shops it seems like they were kind of losing interest in doing it anymore and they didn’t want to put the money into it.”

Slowly, the business started to fade, sustained only by loyal customers who wanted what they felt was a superior product— customers like Leggett, who has been using Game Country feeders for nearly 20 years.

“The Day II feeder, that’s the best thing on the market,” Leggett said. “I’ve used used dozens of different feeders and Game Country makes the best. It’s an amazing product. I bought my first one from Cabella’s back in the ’90s and I’ve still got it. I remember after I bought my first one and set it up and realized how great it was and how reliable it was, I thought, ‘Oh my God, I can throw all these other feeders away.

“And that’s all I’ve bought since.”

Leggett said the last time that he called Game Country as a customer led to him stepping in as the new owner. A couple of years ago, a feeder Leggett ordered didn’t arrive and he ended up talking with Arnette Sanders about the problem. They eventually got the situation handled and struck up a conversation.

“We talked over the next few weeks and she had mentioned they were thinking about selling the business and wanted to know if I knew anybody who would be interested,” explained Leggett. “I said, ‘Well, I just might.’ So we got to talking about it and my dad and I drove down here and it was a quick trip down and back and we kind of had a verbal agreement, like an old-timey handshake agreement.”

It took over a year to go back through the company’s finances and get the legal work done for Leggett to buy the business, but he got involved immediately and start putting some of the money he was earning as an accountant into the company.

“What was nice was that during all the negotiations I was helping out with financing and Mrs. Sanders said, ‘Well, we’ll just take that right off the top of what the note is,’” said Leggett. “And they stuck with that. According to my notes, it all started on June 9, 2013 with the order of two feeder mechanisms and my first check of $2,000 to help support the company was written on May 5, 2014.”

Leggett won’t say how much he’s put into trying to keep the company afloat, but he does share that the company was losing money when the Sanders still owned it.

“The company’s lost money for years and the Sanders were putting their own money into it for years to keep a few people employed, which that, to me, speaks volumes,” said Leggett. “And that’s what I’m trying to do. I want keep these people working and provide new jobs.”

In March, that Leggett became the outright owner. Bill Sanders passed away in 2014, and Arnette Sanders followed not long after the sale was complete.

“Mr. Sanders passed away in 2014 and I just hated that; my dad and I were looking forward to spending some time picking his brain because he really was a brilliant man,” Leggett said. “Mrs. Sanders hung around long enough to see the deal happen. We signed everything in March and she passed away in April. And I thought, ‘She hung around just long enough to see her job finished and go be with her husband.’ At least that’s the way I think about it.”

Now, it’s going to take the hard work of Leggett and the staff to make Game Country a major industry player again.

In the short term, Leggett, who still lives in Fort Worth and is still with the CPA firm, is putting money into Game Country and trying to accomplish as much as he can from afar.

“Right now, we’re just trying to build up sales and get the word out that we’re here,” Leggett said. “I couldn’t stand the thought of not being able to buy another Game Country feeder and I can’t be the only one. Every sportsman out there would love this.”

In his spare time, Leggett is going to different retail outlets that might be interested in carrying the feeders. He’s also making plans to start attending product shows.

He also has modernized the company’s facility in Albany and has redesigned the company’s website, www.gamecountry.biz. The site has information about all the Game Country USA products, and information on how to contact the company to place orders or for customer support. Soon the site will also have a shopping cart feature so customers can order products online.

Additionally, Leggett, who also has degrees and certifications in microprocessor manufacturing, electronics and robotics, is working on a new feeder design he thinks will revolutionize the industry.

“It’s going to be huge,” Leggett said of that design. “Everybody is going to want one of our feeders.”

On his immediate to-do list is to relocate his retired father, Albert, to Albany so he can begin assisting Larry and the rest of the staff. Leggett hopes to not be too far behind.

“It’s difficult because I want to be here (in Albany),” said Leggett. “If I could quit my job tomorrow and come down here I would. But the business has to be making money before I could do that because my job in Fort Worth is paying the bills. Barely.”

Leggett knows how to work hard and believes God has been preparing him for this all of his life.

“I was talking with (a co-worker in Fort Worth) and wondering if maybe I had made a mistake,” said Leggett. “And he said, ‘Absolutely not; God has been preparing you for what you’re about to do. You’ve got the basic knowledge to understand this feeder and you’ve got the accounting degree now to understand the finances behind it.’ I thought, ‘Wow, what a pick-me-up!’

“I do believe God dropped this in my lap. I have no doubt this will work.”

Jordan, who is now in her 70s, and who Leggett suspects was doing the books for the Sanders even if they couldn’t pay her at the end, thinks great things are on the horizon for Game Country.

“It’s going to get better, I have faith in that,” she said. “Because Terry, he wants it and he works so hard. With Terry, I think we have hope. He’s out there trying every day to make this business better. He’s a good guy.”

Sellers, who like Jordan remembers some tough times over the years, also has renewed vigor for his job and has already seen a slight uptick in interest for the product.

“I do feel good about the future, especially with us doing some of the things that Terry wants to do,” said Sellers. “He’s a long-time user of our product and he knew it was a good product. I’m very optimistic about what he wants to do. He’s spent quite a bit of his own money to keep the company going and I don’t think people are going to spend that kind of money unless they are really serious or they can afford to waste it. And I don’t think he can afford to waste it.”

Of course, Sellers also knows what Leggett knows, that the product itself provides a reason for hope.

“There are a lot of feeders on the market,” said Sellers. “Ours is better. I’ve talked to too many people over the years that love our product. It’s just we have have to start getting the word out again, ‘hey we’re still alive.’ I think maybe people forgot about us because we’re not in the catalogues anymore. But the thing is, we haven’t gone anywhere.

“It’s amazing the company is still around and it’s because of the product we make, a quality product. I can just imagine, with a little bit of marketing, what could happen to this place.”

Game Country USA is located at 2403 Commerce Lane and is open 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. weekdays. The company can be reached by phone at (229) 883-4706 or its website, www.famecountry.biz.