Holy cow, just saw Baby Back Maniac's grease fire and "I'm taking it back to Lowes" videos. Honestly, I kind of feel bad for everyone involved EXCEPT Weber. I think we all love Weber and want Weber to succeed...but, we have ALL noticed the shifts in quality and products over the last few years. I'm not a China basher, as we all use Chinese made products every single day, and in almost every possible way...good grief, my garage is full of Chinese made Harbor Freight tools, and I'm generally thrilled with Harbor Freight, and I know what I'm getting going into it.
I think Weber's real problem is the fact that they were sold to a PRIVATE EQUITY FIRM, BDT Capital Partners, in 2010. Since then, the shift has CLEARLY been maximizing profit first, quality second. taco handles, lighter legs, overseas Spirit production, and SOME of the new generation Genesis production...with the move to more plastic and less steel parts on the new gen Genesis...and now the dumpster fire (or should I say grease fire) that is the Smoke Fire. I'm afraid of two things. First, there's going to come a tipping point where Weber loses its long earned reputation for quality, and second I'm afraid they are going to become Char Broil...just another example of a disposable product not built for generational use, but a thing that will be designed to fail and re-buy in quick succession. To be clear, I want Weber to succeed, and I get companies need to change with the time, but I'm afraid they've had a decade long drift away from what made them great.
Finally about Private Equity Firms. They're the lurking shadow running our modern economy. Look up BDM Capital Partners. They don't even have a website. They're run by the mysterious Byron Trott...and if you didn't know they now own a lot of brands we may love. This link (a bit of clickbait I know, but a decent overview) lets you know what they own.
https://heavy.com/news/2019/06/bdt-capital-partners/
