Weber CEO steps down

[michaelmilitello]

https://finance.yahoo.com/video/weber-replaces-ceo-chris-scherzinger-134628505.html

There's an imbedded video.  Talks of possible Traiger -Weber mergers.  Rubbermaid buying Weber, possibly.  Tough time for Weber.   Supply chain woes and trying to sell premium priced products with 9% inflation is a tough environment.  Plus stiff competition. 


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[JEBIV]

ouch

[LightningBoldtz]

I mentioned this quite a while ago but Weber should have gotten into the pellet game 10 years back.  Getting in, when they did was Johnny come lately.  This is one issue.  Charcoal cooking is going to way of the dinosaur, as much as I love to do it the fact is people simply don't want to mess with it.  Add to that, even before inflation, weber had to bump prices because of tariffs so that along with inflation and now you have standard Kettles selling for $239 very few people will drop that on a charcoal grill.  Finally, as a person who sells refurbished weber gas grills, over the past 4 years I have seen a huge dip in demand and I credit pellet grills and griddles as the cause.  When gassers go south people are replacing with them with traegers and blackstones.  I think Weber has sat on the top of the hill for too long and has been unable to look 10 years down the line.  All this while they cheapen out the products they put on the floor, when people do buy a gasser from me, they tell me they can't justify the money for new for the quality they are getting.  I hope for the best of course.

[P0234]

A merger is much better than being sold to a Chinese company who keep the name and throws out the quality.

[michaelmilitello]

[mention]LightningBoldtz [/mention] I agree with you.  Traiger is also suffering.   They about to go through a restructuring.   Stock price is $3.  A merger would make sense.   

I would imagine Weber weathered a similar storm in the early 1980s when inflation was also bad and they were also late in getting a rectangular gasser to the market.  The Genesis literally saved Weber. 


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[MoparProud]

I disagree.

10 years ago, NO ONE knew pellets would take off like they did. The Traegers sold out and promptly got sued by the new owners of the company they founded. I despise what Traeger does on that front. And Traeger turns around and sues GMG which is totally baseless. Read the suit.

So to sit and say Weber should have jumped on 10 years ago, well you benefit from hindsight being 20/20. You guys didn't see it coming either otherwise you'd be retired and extremely wealthy...

The video is pure speculation, I'm not sure there are legit talks about merging. I will say, I won't buy anymore new if they were to merge with Traeger.

And this is why you cannot screw with the economy. Shutting down was always bogus and made billionaires (looking at you Bezos and Waltons...) even richer. They are the few that benefitted....and we will pay for it for a decade or more.


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[LightningBoldtz]

I disagree.

10 years ago, NO ONE knew pellets would take off like they did. The Traegers sold out and promptly got sued by the new owners of the company they founded. I despise what Traeger does on that front. And Traeger turns around and sues GMG which is totally baseless. Read the suit.

So to sit and say Weber should have jumped on 10 years ago, well you benefit from hindsight being 20/20. You guys didn't see it coming either otherwise you'd be retired and extremely wealthy...

The video is pure speculation, I'm not sure there are legit talks about merging. I will say, I won't buy anymore new if they were to merge with Traeger.

And this is why you cannot screw with the economy. Shutting down was always bogus and made billionaires (looking at you Bezos and Waltons...) even richer. They are the few that benefitted....and we will pay for it for a decade or more.


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I own a pellet grill by a company called Grilla Grills they started making pellet grills about 9 years ago.....because they saw trends at the time.  Traegers patent had run out and pellet grills companies were springing up everywhere.  So yeah the data was there, and I will double down on the fact that they should have been making plans, they should have had Market data showing the trends and frankly if they had acted then, they could have crushed the others.   
To say,

So to sit and say Weber should have jumped on 10 years ago, well you benefit from hindsight being 20/20. You guys didn't see it coming either otherwise you'd be retired and extremely wealthy...

is ridiculous, I did not work for a grill company, I do not work in market analysis, good companies however hire people to do this and good leadership take action.  Instead, they sold the company and all the new owners were interested in was to cut corners and sell for the same price.  This is a matter of opinion, but I happen to think that companies like Weber who are king of the world tend to sit on their loreals and love being #1.  Happened to the big 3 autos in the 80's and so many other businesses. 

[mattstaub]

I mentioned this quite a while ago but Weber should have gotten into the pellet game 10 years back.  Getting in, when they did was Johnny come lately.  This is one issue.  Charcoal cooking is going to way of the dinosaur, as much as I love to do it the fact is people simply don't want to mess with it.  Add to that, even before inflation, weber had to bump prices because of tariffs so that along with inflation and now you have standard Kettles selling for $239 very few people will drop that on a charcoal grill.  Finally, as a person who sells refurbished weber gas grills, over the past 4 years I have seen a huge dip in demand and I credit pellet grills and griddles as the cause.  When gassers go south people are replacing with them with traegers and blackstones.  I think Weber has sat on the top of the hill for too long and has been unable to look 10 years down the line.  All this while they cheapen out the products they put on the floor, when people do buy a gasser from me, they tell me they can't justify the money for new for the quality they are getting.  I hope for the best of course.

Just think Eastman Kodak.  I proudly still shoot film, and I will proudly still cook on charcoal as long as I can, but this post sums it up.

Also, Johnny Backyard can no longer afford new Weber's (except charcoal grills).  That's a big problem.


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[MoparProud]

It's only ridiculous because it doesn't jive with your opinion.

Again, no one knew pellets would take off like they did. Congrats on owning a Grilla....I suppose? I've got a Green Mountain and they were founded in 2006 if I remember correctly....does that somehow add more value??

Weber didn't need to have a knee jerk reaction to what, at the time, amounted to a fad. Business doesn't pay chasing the next hottest widget or gadget, how many times have you seen something come and go?

If you think Weber hasn't watched and been watching market trends over the last decade or two or three or four or seven, you'd be a fool. I promise they know more about the numbers involved than we do.


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[michaelmilitello]

Didn't mean to cause a stir with the Weber news.  Good discussion, though.   Cook something outdoors tonight!!


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[MoparProud]

Haha. There's always differing views, usually a little of both points is where reality is. No hard feelings I hope, I have an insane ability to tick people off online without meaning to🤣

Cooking indoors tonight but assembling my last two 70th's so that's my kettle related night.


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[JEBIV]

I am going to weight in on this !! I'm 205 pounds and I cook fatty proteins and other stuff on Weber charcoal grills !!

[bear]

I am going to weight in on this !! I'm 205 pounds and I cook fatty proteins and other stuff on Weber charcoal grills !!

Lol

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[LightningBoldtz]

Didn't mean to cause a stir with the Weber news.  Good discussion, though.   Cook something outdoors tonight!!


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No stir, just 2 people with differing opinions on a topic, it's OK.  Michael, you should know by now based on my facebook posts, while I have opinions, I like to engage with people I disagree with because I may learn something I didn't know.  Unlike a lot of people, I try to pop those bubbles that big tech tries to put us in.  This discussion is 100% opinion and conjecture on what is happening and what should have happened.  It's not like anyone can come with data and hard facts to prove someone else wrong.  I happen to think Weber got into the Pellet game late, this is based on a lot of personal experiences, MoparProud thinks differently.   It's OK for him to be wrong.   
I will say this, the part of getting in the pellet market is just one facet of the issue, market trends (people abandoning older cooking styles) as well as Weber's decline in quality has also played a big role.

[HoosierKettle]

If anything, charcoal grilling is more popular now than in the 80's. At least in my area. I don't think pellet grills are taking over. They are just another category in the ever expanding grilling market.


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