A bad day in the office for Mc

[ozflea]

What caused the final collaspe of McCulloch in the 90's and why did they go bankrupt and am i wrong ??

I wasn't involved with Mc's when their end came so i was wondering what happened.

I know that Mc was bought out and that current saws are badge engineered
like so many cars i see even on Aussie roads.

No doubt many saw manufacturers have travelled this same path.

I would say that buying a geniune anything now days is impossible even with Stihl as many of they're components ain't made in Germany but in third world countries where sweat is cheaper, oh the all mighty dollar.

McBob.

 

[glens]

The dollar ain't so mighty these days...

I consider a part to still be genuine if the maker has them made to specification, even if elsewhere.

 

[Lobo]

What caused the final collaspe of McCulloch in the 90's and why did they go bankrupt and am i wrong ??

I wasn't involved with Mc's when their end came so i was wondering what happened.

I know that Mc was bought out and that current saws are badge engineered
like so many cars i see even on Aussie roads.

No doubt many saw manufacturers have travelled this same path.

I would say that buying a geniune anything now days is impossible even with Stihl as many of they're components ain't made in Germany but in third world countries where sweat is cheaper, oh the all mighty dollar.

McBob.

Contrary to north American philosophy where parts on my Dodge were made in India, Malaysia, Mexico etc. where there is really cheap labor, German and many other European companies with higher quality products and standards still manufacture most of their components to maintain their high quality.

I had the same part fail on gas tanks on both 2000 & 2002 Dodges, this component was stamped made in Malaysia. The defect was never corrected by Daimler Chrysler, the part itself only cost I believe something like $14.00, ''dirt cheap'' for the part but Chrysler paid for these under warranty 3 times, however my down time was excluded and not covered of course. Because of such problems on 3 consecutive Chrysler vehicles in 7 years I will probably never ever by anymore of their scrap. American vehicles are second class to Asian and European engineered products.

Daimler is trying to unload Chrysler Corp. (purchasing it was their big mistake, Daimler exec's must of met the worlds best salesman) but no one in the industry is stupid enough to pick it up now.

Bottom line as usual in anything is you get what you pay for. If you pay less you normally also get less.

 

[woodshop]

I consider a part to still be genuine if the maker has them made to specification, even if elsewhere.

I agree... I bought a piano from a mainland Chinese company that had a past reputation as having mediocre quality control, sortof a "le piano" for the masses. Less than stellar sound. But two years ago Yamaha, a Japanese quality piano maker took over their factory in China, put Yamaha machines in it, Yamaha materials and quality control. They use cheap Chinese labor, but the piano looks and sounds like a quality Yamaha. If Stihl sets up a plant in xyz country, puts Stihl machines in it and Stihl materials and quality control, I still see it as a genuine Stihl part.

 

[premix]

I would say competition and very poor marketing.

It is interesting that when I was a kid in the 60s around the logging town where I grew up McCulloch and Homelites were the real big players in chainsaws around here. The big McCullochs had acquired a reputation of hard to start by the loggers in the area by the early 70s compared to the Homelites. By big I mean 3 and 4 foot bars were the normal around here back than. Keep in mind back than loggers in this area did not use small chainsaws even to cut firewood back than in this area. Much of the timber was bigger on average back than.

I don't remember seeing any chainsaws in the area with a bar less than 3 feet until 73 or 74. The big Homelites kind of took over in the 70s because they stared easier and seemed to hold up better. Around the late 70s and early 80s Stihl started to become popular with good power to weight ratios and also very important they stared even easier most of the time than the big Homelites. In the early 80s to mid 80s it seemed like mostly Stihls with a few Homelites throwen in. By the mid 80s it was mostly Stihl saws with some Husqvarna saws.

Well used and abused Homelites and McCullochs by this time were just something you seen in the local saw shops collecting dust. Stihls got the best advertising you could get for a chainsaw around here anyway, in that nearly all of the loggers used Stihls.

Stihl was very sharp at marketing. Homelite and McCulloch were terrible at this game. They (Homelite and McCulloch) never opened a real dealership around here that I seen. Most of them were small general saw shops. And Stihl put real dealerships in almost every town in Washington State by the mid 80s.

In October 1999, McCulloch's North American operation was purchased by Jenn Feng Industrial Co., Ltd, a Taiwan based manufacturer. After many financial problems for more than a decade.

Your experience might be different. I'm just saying that is what I seem in my local area over the decades.

 

[ozflea]

Is that to say that the American quality is not as good as the foreign stuff, i really feel that the Aussie manufacturing industry suffered the same fate, i recall my uncle buying a Toyota crown ute after hateing anything japanese as he had served in the islands during the 2nd WW but they offered quality and items that our local manufactures considered extras but forgetting quality, his car came standard with a radio something unheard of at the time, and with the tag jap crap but in the end look who won the market share.

Pity we can't have the same pride and workmanship that we give to foreign owned company's, for our own products that were locally made we are seeing the results now in the product range being offered and it doesn't include much of our homegrown stuff.

Thats how Stihl got into Australia Good product with the best of the best in after sales, service and overnight delivery of 99.9% parts. No wonder we couldn't compete we were just to silly to see the writing on the wall.

Dont say the other companies cannot offer the same quality they can but wouldn't, profits mattered more and this is where you end up, and with, a bigger percentage of your hard eaned dollar going out of your country, and in the end no local manufacturers.

Mc Bob.

 

[Al Smith]

I really didn't pay much attention,at the time big yellow,went down the drain.It was as American,as apple pie.I just took for granted that John Deere ,Cat,Ford Chevy,and McCulloch would be around for ever.Wrong -o,Marylou!I had seen a switch from sales in small shops to then selling at TSC,Wall-mart etc,but never paid much attention because the small shops still carried the parts,and sold a few saws.The small independent dealers could not compete with the big box stores,so sold very few .An example would be a pro Mac 610 ,that could be purchased for $169.95 at Wally world,on sale but around $250 from the small shops.I was repairing a 610,when I found out from a local dealer[Stihl] about the demise of big Mac.It just shows to go ya,don't take anything for granted.

 

[canguy21]

McCulloch died and was resurrected at least three times. The European manufacturers moved in and kicked butt with reliabilty and service so Mac and Homelite moved out of the pro market and into the lucrative throw away consumer units. Poor management practices and failure to understand the market place killed them.

 

[ozflea]

Your right Al, i was selling Mc's when McCulloch went the discount house route and although many dealers complained nothing was done. McCulloch told us it would be good for business with the likes of Walmart or Kmart out here but that was bullxxxx as everyone now knows.

I recall the reps telling us that to start and tune a discount house sale we would be paid $10-00 by McCulloch we told Mc to bugger off as why should we offer the service that the seller wouldn't, that didn't go down to well with McCulloch but thats the way we reacted, later i didn't even stock the smaller saws as to make $5 or $7 was a joke and i wouldn't even offer to try to get this type of sale when i could be selling farm or pro saws and making much much better money.

But in the end i feel spares where as much a let down as anything else with with many items going onto a long backorder list to the states and any updated mods to overcome problems put us behind with again with up to 3 mths wait and Mc's policy of 7 years of spares from the time of final production of a model again cheesed off a lot of customers especially farmers who often used used saws for many years on and off before needing parts.

As regards quality their saws weren't to bad and were easy to service and feedback on servicing from the factory in Sydney was great and very switched on but getting the parts was very slow as i recall with the first uses of the PM1000 we had a terrible problem with the fine dust of the Australian Hardwoods getting through the airfilter screens and causing all sorts of problems and the flocked filters were about 4 months away making for many unhappy pro cutters plus the Auto oiler was pitiful but an updated one was only four months too late and Mc suffered another kick in the xxxx.

I was also there for the final days of the PM105 and SP125 selling proberly the last 20 or so into our local area the days of selling great saws was drawing to a close as Mc went down the consumer path and forgot about their old pro dealers sad days indeed.
At one stage we were Australia's largest McCulloch chainsaw dealer selling strongly and out doing Stihl and the fledgling range of Husqvarna who were also taking on Stihl.

Mc Bob

 

[Mange]

Elux is selling some pro models of McCulloch in Italy, they say. What saws or where they are built I can not say for sure. They bought the company for the purpose of making and selling consumer saws, but parts for the pro saws are made in the US/Canada factory's'. They are building new plants in Italy and Mexico as far as I know.
The brand is still alive, that is something at least.
http://international.mcculloch.se/