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Husqvarna to restructure consumer brands

Stump Shot

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No doubt that they are going to need a bunch of good people like Jon, the only question is, when they report their findings will they listen to what they have to say and will they make good moves going forward.
 

mikefunaro

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GCJenks204

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Spike60

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Something always happens when you go on vacation. LOL

These low end brands don't make money, for ANYONE, and there's no point in being involved with them. And while there are no margins with this stuff, the cost of warranty administration and parts support still has to be in place. They still have to pay people to build this junk, they still have to put it in a box and ship it, pay for EPA certification. Most of those back end costs are reasonble constant and have to be suported on some item with $30 of profit in it? The stuff is garbage, yet no matter how cheap something is, buyers still expect it to work.

IMO............ Husky needs to get rid of the notion that they need to have a presence in every single segment in the industry, so shedding these brands is a good step in that direction. The other thing going on here is that the entry level hand held market is rapidly converting over to battery products. There is certainly no growth at all in store for wild things and weedeater. Makes sense for the occasional user to go battery, as they are constantly frustrated with low end consumer equipment that never starts when they need it.

The Craftsman story goes like this: Even near the end there was a lot of business there for Husky, but they walked away from that arrangement somewhat cleverly. One of the reasons they originally had most of it was that they extended generous 90 day terms to Sears. And at any time there might be close to $100 million dollars "out there". Now we all know what direction Sears has been going, and Husky wisely shortened those terms to 30 days to limit their exposure. So in walks MTD to fill the void, and MTD guys were crowing that they "got that business away from Husky" Guess they forgot that they lost 20 some million when Montgomery-Ward folded a few years back. LOL Good luck to them.

Mike generously sent me a few articles on this that I can't read here at home on dialup. I'll have more details on this that I'll share when i can. All of this who services what talk is comical. The corporates have very little control, in fact essentially NONE as to how competently a dealers supports the product. Stocking parts, qualified techs. Husky, Stihl, Echo and such all have every possible resource in place to enable dealers to do a good job. But they can't force dealers to get their act together.

But they aren't going to cancel dealers who can't figure it out, cause they'd have to axe 75% of the dealers in the country. For the most part Husky and Stihl themselves are mostly to blame for this situation IMO. The reason is that they saturate the market by opening up dealer after dealer. There are too many of each in any given market, and you can't cultivate strong, quality dealers with that approach.
 

Stump Shot

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But they aren't going to cancel dealers who can't figure it out, cause they'd have to axe 75% of the dealers in the country. For the most part Husky and Stihl themselves are mostly to blame for this situation IMO. The reason is that they saturate the market by opening up dealer after dealer. There are too many of each in any given market, and you can't cultivate strong, quality dealers with that approach.


Nor should they, if a guy just wants to just sell, let him sell. What I can't understand and have been miserably trying to elude to is why have that same guy listed as a servicing dealer by the manufacturer? (not necessarily lesser brands here, talking top tier) This makes no sense to anyone and is what frustrates people the most. Finding themselves walking out the door with their OPE in the same state as they walked in with it, or getting pinched to buy yet another new product to start the process all over again. When the whole thing could be avoided in the first place by being up front about what/where you need to go/do when service is needed. I just think it's simple, maybe I am instead, but a lot of folks are getting tired of the same old song and dance routine of implied service that doesn't exist.
 
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Its kind of a simple idea: If the authorized seller can’t work on it/repair and the warranty process is too much of a PITA, people will be more inclined to buy new. Especially if the servicing/repair facility is remote/expensive/long wait times and the consumer needs the OPE immediately.

Will this leave a bad taste in consumer’s mouths? Yup.
Will this cost them in brand loyalty? Yup
Do they make more $$$ in new sales or in repair services? Depends on how much profit they make on the repair parts. If it is more cost effective to not keep repair parts available and force consumers to purchase new......
 

FergusonTO35

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In the case of my mom, she ended up going to their biggest competitor (MTD Troy Bilt) and bad mouths Husky every chance she gets.
 

Jon1212

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Something always happens when you go on vacation. LOL

These low end brands don't make money, for ANYONE, and there's no point in being involved with them. And while there are no margins with this stuff, the cost of warranty administration and parts support still has to be in place. They still have to pay people to build this junk, they still have to put it in a box and ship it, pay for EPA certification. Most of those back end costs are reasonble constant and have to be suported on some item with $30 of profit in it? The stuff is garbage, yet no matter how cheap something is, buyers still expect it to work.

IMO............ Husky needs to get rid of the notion that they need to have a presence in every single segment in the industry, so shedding these brands is a good step in that direction. The other thing going on here is that the entry level hand held market is rapidly converting over to battery products. There is certainly no growth at all in store for wild things and weedeater. Makes sense for the occasional user to go battery, as they are constantly frustrated with low end consumer equipment that never starts when they need it.

The Craftsman story goes like this: Even near the end there was a lot of business there for Husky, but they walked away from that arrangement somewhat cleverly. One of the reasons they originally had most of it was that they extended generous 90 day terms to Sears. And at any time there might be close to $100 million dollars "out there". Now we all know what direction Sears has been going, and Husky wisely shortened those terms to 30 days to limit their exposure. So in walks MTD to fill the void, and MTD guys were crowing that they "got that business away from Husky" Guess they forgot that they lost 20 some million when Montgomery-Ward folded a few years back. LOL Good luck to them.

Mike generously sent me a few articles on this that I can't read here at home on dialup. I'll have more details on this that I'll share when i can. All of this who services what talk is comical. The corporates have very little control, in fact essentially NONE as to how competently a dealers supports the product. Stocking parts, qualified techs. Husky, Stihl, Echo and such all have every possible resource in place to enable dealers to do a good job. But they can't force dealers to get their act together.

But they aren't going to cancel dealers who can't figure it out, cause they'd have to axe 75% of the dealers in the country. For the most part Husky and Stihl themselves are mostly to blame for this situation IMO. The reason is that they saturate the market by opening up dealer after dealer. There are too many of each in any given market, and you can't cultivate strong, quality dealers with that approach.
Nice post, and all very good points.
 

Lightning Performance

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Something always happens...

IMO............ Husky

...& Stihl imo...

needs to get rid of the notion that they need to have a presence in every single segment in the industry.

But they aren't going to cancel dealers who can't figure it out, cause they'd have to axe 75% of the dealers in the country. For the most part Husky and Stihl themselves are mostly to blame for this situation IMO. The reason is that they saturate the market by opening up dealer after dealer. There are too many of each in any given market, and you can't cultivate strong, quality dealers with that approach.
And repair people who know nothing about diagnostics including general repair.
 

FergusonTO35

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How about, selling dealers are required to get warranty claims addressed but not necessarily do the fix themselves? They could bring the units to an authorized shop, send them to a repair center or whatever. Just make it so the customer can get service through the place they bought it, even if it is actually fixed somewhere else.

Some car dealerships are like that. Customer drops off their vehicle at the dealer and talks to the ASM, then it is taken to the service department at another address.
 

Jon1212

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How about, selling dealers are required to get warranty claims addressed but not necessarily do the fix themselves? They could bring the units to an authorized shop, send them to a repair center or whatever. Just make it so the customer can get service through the place they bought it, even if it is actually fixed somewhere else.

Some car dealerships are like that. Customer drops off their vehicle at the dealer and talks to the ASM, then it is taken to the service department at another address.
A fiduciary responsibility already exists, the effort just needs to be made, to make sure it is upheld.
 
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