Popular Wrench Fights a Chinese Rival

[formercia]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/popular-wrench-fights-chinese-rival-004542621.html?page=2


By SHAILA DEWAN | New York Times – Fri, Nov 9, 2012 11:24 AM EST

n 2009, LoggerHead hit pay dirt when Sears agreed to do a test sale. The product sold out, Mr. Brown said, and Sears ordered 75,000 Bionic Wrenches the next year. In exchange Mr. Brown agreed not to sell the wrench to Sears’s competitors, including Home Depot and Lowe’s.

In 2011, sales at Sears increased again, far outpacing LoggerHead’s other outlets like the QVC shopping channel and smaller hardware stores. But LoggerHead’s profit margin remained small, in part because it produced a television commercial and paid Sears to show it.

--snip--


“I’m in favor of free trade,” Mr. Brown said. “The person who’s out-innovated loses. But it’s destructive when someone competes but doesn’t out-innovate, they just produce it in a different market without regard to safety codes and human conditions.”
The company that makes the Max Axess wrench and other tools for Craftsman, the Apex Tool Group, is being acquired by Bain Capital, the company founded by Mitt Romney, in a $1.6 billion deal.



Sears is gone to the Dark Side. This troubles me because I am fond of Craftsman tools.

[No Elephants]

1. Sometimes, it seems as though everyone in business has gone to the dark side.

I bet Bain was happy to see Mitt run for President at first. However, now that he has lost, I bet they wish the spotlight never got directed at them.

It was never clear to me how much, if anything, of Bain Mitt still owns. He emphasized his "retroactive retirement," but ceasing to be CEO does not mean he ceased to have any ownership interest.

[Leopolds Ghost]

2. I read this as "Popular Wench fights Chinese Rival" and was hoping there was video.

:evilgrin:

So let me guess -- Bain Capital is moving the competing brand to China? I thought Craftsman made its tools in-house.

What is Obama doing to bolster the "Made in USA" trademark I wonder.

[formercia]

3. Starring Bruce Lee

Wait...he's dead. :rofl: