If you were SBD, what would you do with these brands? Which lines would you invest in and develop, and which lines would you eliminate?
Its not as simple as keeping and eliminating brands, its a lot more complicated than that. For the most part, the damage has been done. Take Record vise for instance. They used to be an English made, super high quality, industrial bench vise. Now, they're a crappy Chinese casting that I would be ashamed to own, much less put in my shop and expect to last 50 years. They could be almost free and I still wouldn't take them. Irwin took the Record name and ground it into the dirt. You want to bring Record back? Open a foundry in England. Employ skilled tradesman at good wages and charge an appropriate price for your product that reflects the manufacturing. If you did that all tomorrow, it would take YEARS to recover the reputation of Record from all the shoddy, bad vises on the market today.
Don't be part of the race to the bottom. Good customers aren't afraid to spend money, especially with something that is a quality, durable good.
Lots of brands that Irwin has re-branded over the years were small companies that focused their energy on making a quality product, above all else. They were small town companies, keeping people employed in their hometowns. I have ZERO respect for a company that rides solely on reputation of the name (which they didn't make, they bought), without backing it up with a quality product with good manufacturing ethics.
If you purchase a brand that has a good reputation, grow it. Feed it, add capital and investment. Don't shell it out for cash and then dump it.
I realize its a global economy, and there are a lot of benefits to trade. But it just rubs US buyers wrong when you take beloved brands like Vise-Grip and shut the factory down, cheapen the product, and then import them from China. I'd pay twice as much for good quality, US made vise grips.
So, if you work at SBD, which I assume you do, here's my advice. I'm not a fiscal wizard, nor am I an uber successful corporate CEO. I own a small business, and I directly work with manufacturing in the US. So take that for what its worth.
Quality above all else. ALL ELSE. People will put up with a lot as long as **** works. I won't use Irwin Unibits. They ****. But Lenox Vari-bits are the best money can buy. Same corporate umbrella, incredibly different products. Irwin didn't buy Record because they made a ****** product. But In the name of greed, Record became ******. The unfortunate thing is quality and cost go hand in hand. The good stuff costs more. That's ok. That's what your product tiers are for.
You need product tiers. Tools for home gamers, tools for contractors, and tools for industry. SBD has a lot of this already. There can be some overlap, but not everyone can afford to or wants to pay $600 for a bench vise. Don't cheap out on the tools the contractors and industry uses because you want to sell Record vises to home shop guys. Keep Record industrial quality, and make NEW vises under the Irwin or another name that are cheap.
COO matters to a lot of US consumers. I work in American manufacturing. I will pay more to support US manufacturing, because I am part of the US economy. When US manufacturing is strong, I get more customers, and therefore more money to spend in the US economy, and the cycle continues. Shuttering factories and killing jobs for a few more bucks profit is just ****** ethics. Greed. And we as consumers see that, and it reflects poorly on you as a manufacturer.
So. In summary.
1.Make quality tools.
2. Respect brands you've purchased, because they have history. Don't cheapen them for a quick buck.
3. Use good manufacturing and business ethics.
