Hustler to sell at HD and Lowe's

[SuperiorPower]

Originally Posted by grouch

Another one bites the dust. Same sort of thing happened in the rental industry with the growth of national chains - manufacturers began selling directly to them on national accounts. Local dealers were completely shut out unless warranty was needed. Many local dealers refused to perform warranty on equipment sold this way and if the manufacturer threatened them they simply stopped selling the line.

Even STIHL does this. They sell directly to Asplundh. They sell the equipment direct, with no warranty. Its crazy how cheap they sell their saws to Asplundh.

[roym]

Same with the rental yards, Stihl sold cutoff saws direct for the rental fleets but they would blow them out the door at 10% over our cost. We initially refused to stock the units but Stihl told us put the whole line in or lose your franchise. We put a couple on display but being on commission I refused to spend effort on them, there it is, there is the price. Do you want to write it up? They were a waste of valuable time.
Back to Hustler. They have yet to learn that bowing to the box stores adds to sales volume which keeps shareholders happy but little if anything to the bottom line. Murray and others learned this the hard way.

[mowingman]

Hustler has been struggling financially for a long time. A number of years ago, they tried to sell off the company. I personally talked to a "wheel" with a competing ZTR manufacturer, who toured the Hustler factory with the intent to see if they wanted to buy the whole operation. As I understand it, back then, the factory was an outdated, ineffecient operation, so they turned down the opportunity to buy. This was probably 7 or 8 years ago
More recently, some Korean? company invested heavily in Hustler and owns some portion of the company. I think it was Shiburu. This happened shortly after Hustler's illfated adventure with Cat diesel-powered machines.
Now, they are moving into the big box market. I believe Hustler is a sinking ship, and trying whatever they have to to stay afloat. The Koreans probably want to see something in return for what they have invested.

[SuperiorPower]

Come to think of it, last summer they called me and almost begged me to take on their line. I think the previous local dealer quit on them. They told me there were about 1,000 in a 3 county area that would need service and parts. Bet I'd get ALL of those!

[grouch]

I finally wised up about Stihl and sold everything I could to the hardware store down the street before I shut down my operation. They're not making any money at it either, but took on Echo and Toro also - to not make any money some more. Go figure. As to Hustler - I found the Z market to be rather regional. For this area Scag, Exmark, and Toro are the big sellers, where just north of here it's different brands entirely. Still, Hustler seemed never to catch on anywhere.

[oldtimer]

Last year we dropped Shindaiwa & went elclusive Stihl. Our sales went up and we sold >900 units of Stihl last year and are on track to sell >1200 this year.

We were among Florida's top 10 dealers with eXmark but our Hustler sales were less than half the eXmark sales.


Oldtimer

[Wenger Equipment]

Originally Posted by mowingman

Hustler has been struggling financially for a long time. A number of years ago, they tried to sell off the company. I personally talked to a "wheel" with a competing ZTR manufacturer, who toured the Hustler factory with the intent to see if they wanted to buy the whole operation. As I understand it, back then, the factory was an outdated, ineffecient operation, so they turned down the opportunity to buy. This was probably 7 or 8 years ago
More recently, some Korean? company invested heavily in Hustler and owns some portion of the company. I think it was Shiburu. This happened shortly after Hustler's illfated adventure with Cat diesel-powered machines.
Now, they are moving into the big box market. I believe Hustler is a sinking ship, and trying whatever they have to to stay afloat. The Koreans probably want to see something in return for what they have invested.

You say Hustler is struggling financially???????? I wonder where you get that info. They are experiencing phenomenal growth for a company of that size. Just for 2015 they increased by about 26%. They are also now advertising that they are the #1 residential zero turn in America. They just invested over 35 million dollars worth of new manufacturing equipment in August of 2015. They have also just started operations out of their brand new 365,000 sq. ft. warehouse facility in Kansas City, KS. They have nearly doubled the # of employees in the past year. I'm not sure where you get your info, all I know is that they are a very rapidly growing company with a great future.

[Gautreaux's LNG]

Originally Posted by mowingman

Hustler has been struggling financially for a long time. A number of years ago, they tried to sell off the company. I personally talked to a "wheel" with a competing ZTR manufacturer, who toured the Hustler factory with the intent to see if they wanted to buy the whole operation. As I understand it, back then, the factory was an outdated, ineffecient operation, so they turned down the opportunity to buy. This was probably 7 or 8 years ago
More recently, some Korean? company invested heavily in Hustler and owns some portion of the company. I think it was Shiburu. This happened shortly after Hustler's illfated adventure with Cat diesel-powered machines.
Now, they are moving into the big box market. I believe Hustler is a sinking ship, and trying whatever they have to to stay afloat. The Koreans probably want to see something in return for what they have invested.

WOW, you make all this up yourself? Why don't you call them and visit their factory and see how bad they are struggling! It's amazing to see so much misinformation thrown up in a post made to look well informed!

[mowingman]

https://www.google.com/amp/ksn.com/2...employees/amp/

Ok, see, I told you, but you did not believe me.