General Mfg is closing their Canadian plant!

Bill Satko

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Methow Valley
Soon General will not be made in Canada. A real shame.

"General MFG. has announced that it will be winding down operations at its manufacturing facility in Drummondville, Quebec sometime in the fall of 2012. The exact date has not yet been established, but a further announcement will be made when this information becomes available.
This decision was deemed necessary to increase the company’s efficiency by combining all Canadian operations under one roof and by eliminating non-profitable SKUs from its product mix. It should also be noted that this decision will not affect their successful distribution centre in Murfreesboro, Tenn, U.S.A.
Current supplies of raw materials are being used at the plant to build up inventory of some of the more popular models, and to build up a long-term supply of replacement parts. Warranty service and replacement parts for existing General MFG. models will be available through General International and their network of dealers for years to come.
In a news release, the company says that it: “Intends to continue building on our proud heritage, and the depth of knowledge and experience acquired from over six decades of service to the woodworking industry will guide us in our ongoing commitment to supply woodworkers with quality innovative products.
“This decision will also allow us to refocus our attention and resources on expansion and further development to our General International, General CNC and Excalibur products that are growing in popularity with woodworkers the world over.
“We invite all of our dealers and customers to visit our booth (#5053) at IWF in Atlanta Aug. 22-25, to get a hands-on look at the breadth and depth of the extensive, high quality product offerings from General International."
 
No surprise to me. Their strategy was flawed.

They should have adapted to change sooner.

Consider Grizzly selling direct ex factory and Grizzly quality aint bad at all for the price.
Now consider General sells through a distributor network.

That shares the margin available between market price and factory cost. So even the International line is going to be questionable in the long term. Same will apply to all the others who have become little more than a wholesaler for essentially the same factories Grizzly is buying from.
Grizzly set the stage a long time back.
Lets be real most of us will with the use they get see our machines outlive ourselves. So we back to fit for purpose.

Still sad for me its more because of the changing values. We just dont have a society anymore that values things the same. :(

But lets remember something. When was a tot we used to have all sorts made in Japan. Used to be called "Jap crap". Thats far from the case today in fact Japan has gained global status for quality.

Well same applies to Taiwan and China. These manufacturers and their capability will get better and better as time goes buy.

So in a free market it becomes how low your costs are....not just labor btw.
I felt General leaned far too much on extorting a premium for their Canadian made machines just because it is made in Canada.
As devoted as i am to Canadian business this is a case of resting on their laurels. Sorry but truth hurts.



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I saw this the other day and didn't have the heart to discuss it. Even a solid company with a solid offering can tank if they don't acknowledge the changing times . . . Examples - Sears mail order; should have been a dot.com dynamo. Blockbuster Video; oops, Borders bookstores; "hey, look what Amazon is doing!?!" and so forth.
 
I saw this the other day and didn't have the heart to discuss it. Even a solid company with a solid offering can tank if they don't acknowledge the changing times . . . Examples - Sears mail order; should have been a dot.com dynamo. Blockbuster Video; oops, Borders bookstores; "hey, look what Amazon is doing!?!" and so forth.

Borders management was so stupid they actually handed all their online business to Amazon around 2000. Then when they finally took it back too late they built a barely functional site.
 
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