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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ouch
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.
A merger is much better than being sold to a Chinese company who keep the name and throws out the quality.
[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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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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Quote from: MoparProud on July 25, 2022, 11:03:50 AM
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,
QuoteSo 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.
Quote from: LightningBoldtz on July 25, 2022, 08:21:01 AM
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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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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Didn't mean to cause a stir with the Weber news. Good discussion, though. Cook something outdoors tonight!!
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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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I am going to weight in on this !! I'm 205 pounds and I cook fatty proteins and other stuff on Weber charcoal grills !!
Quote from: JEBIV on July 26, 2022, 02:43:47 AM
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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Quote from: michaelmilitello on July 25, 2022, 04:07:55 PM
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.
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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Quote from: HoosierKettle on July 27, 2022, 05:41:24 AM
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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Interesting, you are seeing things differently than I am, perhaps different region but I am seeing the complete opposite.
Two guys I work with have Traegers and everyone else I know including neighbors use charcoal on Webers and kamados or propane. My brother has a natural gas Genesis that he loves. He says charcoal is too messy lol. I do see that charcoal flys off the shelf here and the better brands like B&B go fast.
Quote from: HoosierKettle on July 27, 2022, 05:41:24 AM
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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The majority here in MA that I see use gassers. Some have kettles too. I rarely see pellet poopers.
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One other factor not mentioned- in 2020 and 2021 everyone and their brother
bought new grills and griddles during the lock down. EVERYONE. A ten year old
Genesis flipper that I would sell for $225 in 2019 was suddenly selling for $350 - $375.
If I recall the stats correctly at the IPO, Weber stated sales were up 40% from '19 to '21.
Sales didn't just jump for Weber, they went up for everyone hawking any type of grill.
Short of another lock down we will never see those types of numbers again. It will
take a while, 2-4 years likely for '20-'21 box store cheapos to rust and head to the
landfills. The better brands will hang around on peoples decks and patios for quite
a while longer than that. All grill makers should expect a few down years to come.
Then, be prepared for whatever the latest and greatest thing to come along is.
2020 and 2021 were definitely a bubble for the outdoor cooking industry. That gave companies like Weber and Traiger the momentum to go public and capitalize on investment $. These companies will adjust and regroup to maintain their profitability. I would not be surprised is we do see a merger(s), which are not uncommon in economic downturns. Masterbuilt and Kamado Joe are an interesting combo. I think Duraflame bought B&b.
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Weber is finally acknowledging the poor sales I referenced earlier ...
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/traeger-weber-grill-replenishment-rate-172811716.html (https://finance.yahoo.com/news/traeger-weber-grill-replenishment-rate-172811716.html)
I'm a bit unclear: Was Weber's CEO stepping down voluntary?
I was talking with a friend about the outdoor goods sales slump and neither of us can figure out why this was so surprising to the people in the executive offices. Everyone with a back yard invested in it back in 2020/21 when we were all locked up at home and a lot of purchases got moved up. Most people don't replace their patio sets or barbecues on an annual basis so that bulking up during the worst of the pandemic was huge sales volumes "now" during that time at the expense of future sales "later", and later has arrived as it eventually inevitably would.
I don't think charcoal grilling is going away any time soon, regardless of what happens to Weber. Many charcoal grillers buy cheap throw away grills rather than cleaning them anyways, produced by many other companies for decades. Im not saying I want to cook on them, but if it's what I had, I would. I don't see the same longevity for pellet grill use, with their high initial cost, high rates of failure and limited versatility, I see them as a fad. Seems to me everything that comes off of them is more smoked than grilled.