Bass Pro Shops CEO Johnny Morris told Cabela's employees Tuesday that he couldn't guarantee all jobs are safe at the company's Sidney, Neb., headquarters, according to recordings of the meetings obtained by the Omaha World-Herald.
The newspaper reported that Morris did reveal that some of Cabela's operations would remain in Sidney, but warned that some consolidation would take place in the wake of Bass Pro Shop's $5.5 billion acquisition of its chief rival last week.
“Not that there’s not going to be change. Not that there’s not going to be some consolidation, but we plan to have jobs here — important, significant jobs,” Morris was reported to have said on the recordings as he addressed two separate groups of Cabela's employees whose names were drawn in a lottery to be able to attend.
He added, “there’s going to be change. There’s going to be some slimming down.”
Morris also revealed that he and two Cabela's executives met about 10 years ago, shortly after Cabela's became a publicly-traded company, and discussed a possible merger then, but nothing came of it. The idea was revisited in 2009, this time with the notion that Cabela's would buy Bass Pro, but the deal fell through.
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