McCulloch of old??

[rosshuber43]

I had a flashback a couple weeks ago about an old Henry Fonda/Paul Newman movie called Sometimes a great notion.I found a pile of them on half.com and got one It was filmed in 1971, and is about a coastal Oregon logging family(made me homesick). Anybody that likes big wood might like it.Anyway these guys are cutting bbiigg wood with bbiigg McCulloch saws. As I remember being a kid on the coast in the 60's the McCulloch saw was king of the hill,A manly saw made for tough men who made there living in the woods.What happened to them? I read the post started by Dagger about corperate H.Q., a little over my head.Can someone tell me in simple terms what happened.Did the european market offer a better saw for less $
Thanks,Rosco

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I would have said that had I thought of it ???

 

[svrfsvp]

The same thing happened to McC' as what happened to Joe B. in the movie. Couldn't keep their heads above water. Glub glub.

I saw that movie when it came out - I had just started doing tree work, hadn't been out west yet, and I thought it was a great movie. Saw it again recently, after getting into sawing a bit more seriously in the last few years, and after spending many of the last 30 years out west, and what do you know, I still think it's a great movie.

But time flies - Hank Fonda, Lee Remick, and now, even Ken Kesey are all gone. Paul Newman is 77, and you get the sense he'd rather have a beer than saw a union guy's desk in half! But enough about yesterday - it's a new day, and there is wood to be sawed!

 

[bennett]

Hey, is that the movie where someone gets caught under a log in rising water and he dies?

 

[rosshuber43]

Bennett
Yes it is.
Rosco
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Having fun cuz I want to do it

 

[Dagger]

when Bob McCulloch owned the company..it was top ot the hill.
when he decided to retire, he sold out for a kings ransom to Black & Decker..this was the begining of the end. With a board of directors responsible to the shareholders at the helm, they quickly sailed into the mass merchant waters. Then, all R&D money flowed to the devolpment of their biggest customers products, and they simply fell behind in pro saw devolpment.
BUT...they were the Largest producer of chainsaws in the world!!!! of course the board decided one day that this company is worth more to sell and get our stock prices up, so they did, to Matthew Miller, the Shop- Vac corp. By now, Mac had plants in 4 countries!, and 3 in the USA!
Under Millers guidance all R&D ceased in the USA in the prosaw area, and all marketing for these saws was left to his brother, who headed up the European division, and pro-saw production continued in Italy, but these saws were never brought to the USA to market while the millers held the reigns. After Shop-Vac sales went down due to the losing of three accounts to competition in the Vac biz..where 70 % of all their sales was, they decided to sell the McCulloch division, and DLJ bought it. (Donaldson-Lufkin & Jenrette) this large aquisition corp had 43 manufacturers in its sack.
DLJ owned Mac for only a couple of years and liquidated the assets after selling the plant in Italy to Electrolux. Today you know this plant as Oleo-Mac. Where Efco's come from.
D-L-J stock went up steadily for 60 days after this large influx of cash BTW, and that board of directors was very happy!

the Demise of McCulloch really had nothing to do with the competition, it was not even a small factor. It had to do with a Board of directors doing whatever they deemed necessary to raise the price of the stock of their holding company.

The amandonment of the prosaw market in the USA was the decision of the owners, as the volume of the consumer products was so much larger a market.

There ya are Rosco!

and about Paul Newman...I would give alot to get a pic of that scene where he sawed that bankers desk in half!!!Did i understand that you are saying that movie can be bought today???

 

[rosshuber43]

Thanks for the info Dagger.Yes you can by that movie off of half.com,got mine less than 2wks agnce you're at half.com click on the movie tab, then type in the title ,it was called Sometimes a great notion,seems like it was$7 or$8.
Missing Oregon,
Rosco

 

[bwiesner]

Dagger where did you get your info. about Electrolux owning Oleo-Mac? If that be the case they are owned by the same co. that owns Husqvarna. Later Butch

 

[Dagger]

yes one in the same pard...where did i get my info...jeez...common knowledge I thought...
Lessee..press releases were all over when it happened...
I bet you can find it on their site if ya havin missed it , they bought the efco first...and then the McCulloch euro plant...since they were both in the same town in italy..i reckon thats why they combined em...the plant is right across from the gilardoni plant where so many cylinders are vended in this industry...
its mentioned in a link to a bearing site on another thread I believe .
here is a bit of trivia for ya also..they bought it just before the McCulloch auction in arizona, and they also bought all the tooling for the 21 an 25cc pro-mac trimmers before the auction and had em shipped to the Italian plant...you know the machine..the one that looked like an old echo..they are on the market right now in europe..
You see Jeng Fenn of tawian bought the rights to the Mac name for only North America...everywhere else in the world,electrolux owns the name, and the McCulloch label is still on the market..but the 2 ore NOT related

Hers a link to the Tawian mac's
http://www.mccullochpower.com/saws.htm


and hers a page from electrolux's site
http://www.electrolux.com/node539.asp



P.S Stihl toured the plants also. and tried to buy McCulloch, but...they couldnt come up with enuff money, and wanted to buy all but the LA real estate..( which was very high priced, being right across from LAX airport) .but DLJ wanted to sell it together.
The assets of mcCulloch Corp prior of the auction were 3 times the net worth of Stihl!