camillus bankrupt?

T

tthman

Joined
Nov 13, 2005
Messages
202
hi, i was looking at a camillus on ebay and the guy mentioned camillus filed for bankruptcy last week are they in bad shape hope to get out soon? be gone like schrade?I personally hope their out of trouble soon their arent too many usa makers left.If they did file what was the main reason why? thank you
 
That does NOT appear to be true.

After checking several information and news sources, including
hoovers.com, google news, others.

IMO we should avoid unsubstantiated negative rumors on BF.
 
rifon2 said:
IMO we should avoid unsubstantiated negative rumors on BF.
Click to expand...
Personally, I disagree. Let the truth be known. He was asking a question, not making a false claim.
 
Walking Man said:
Personally, I disagree. Let the truth be known. He was asking a question, not making a false claim.
Click to expand...

True, I agree with you.

I was not referring to the original post, I was talking about going forward.
 
Wow. Sorry to hear the news. Hope they all work it out.
 
40% pay cut-

sounds like bankruptcy is close-

dam shame-

either they close the doors and they end up in the hands of the guy who bought schrade -

or they move to china by choice-

thats my bet-cant see people getting that raw a deal and going back to work building a quality product-
 
IMHO they are showing a symptom of the US economy. Nobody will pay what it costs to make a knife in teh US when they can get the same knife, with the same materials, from overseas for half the price. (OK, some would, but the greatest portion of the buying public wouldn't. Go look in the knife case at Walmart & count the "made in china" items.) If they cannot sell their items at what it costs to make them in the US, then they have 2 options - make them overseas, or make them in teh US for something near what it costs to make them in China. This is a classic symptom of people in the US not making any conscious connection between their buying decisions, and the health of their economy. But that's another rant for another time....
 
ejt said:
IMHO they are showing a symptom of the US economy. Nobody will pay what it costs to make a knife in teh US when they can get the same knife, with the same materials, from overseas for half the price. (OK, some would, but the greatest portion of the buying public wouldn't. Go look in the knife case at Walmart & count the "made in china" items.) If they cannot sell their items at what it costs to make them in the US, then they have 2 options - make them overseas, or make them in teh US for something near what it costs to make them in China. This is a classic symptom of people in the US not making any conscious connection between their buying decisions, and the health of their economy. But that's another rant for another time....
Click to expand...



bullshit-just take a look at spyderco,benchmade,kershaw just to say a few-
the problems at camillus are management related-they allowed them to get stagnent and die a slow death instead of becoming what spyderco benchmade and kershaw have become-

they relied on contract pieces instead of inhouse designs and such- they did a piss poor job of marketing a brand name known thru out the world -

with a little effort they could have become what those others have become,but it was easier to just collect a check-

btw when they had the open house sale,the rumors were to be heard then-
 
-just take a look at spyderco,benchmade,kershaw just to say a few-

That is eaxctly right - every one of these companies sells a main line of knives made overseas "to their specs", and then a higher priced line made here. They have all opted to move some part of their production to China to take advnatage of low labor rates, because they know in the end more people will buy a Chinese knife for its low price, than will complain that there are feewer knife making jobs in the US. I quote directly from teh respective web sites:

Benchmade:
The Red Class products, except the Model 160, are produced in our monitored off shores facility.

Spyderco:
Byrd Knives are a new species of knives produced and imported by Spyderco.

Kershaw:
1993 - Kai begins manufacturing operations in Kuangtung, China

You can argue about management (or labor - the plant is represented by teh United Steelworkers, not exactly a bastion of world class labor cost competitiveness) but the point is moot. Acceptable quality items can be made for much less in China, and the majority of consumers make no connection between buying an imported product, and losing a domestic manufactured product. Not a value judgment - this is a natural outgrowth of capitalism. As a society, we seek a less expensive way to do things. It's just that until the last few years it was not so easy to do international business across the board.
 
The quality of the chinese knives is not the same, they are not the same materials, and are not assembled with the same skill and attention to detail. I have done detailed inspections and reviews of the chinese knives Taylor is importing with Schrade stamped on them, compared them side by side with genuine U.S. Imperial Schrade knives of the same patterns, and they are poor imitations. Do a forum search in the Schrade Collector's forum to find the reviews. 171UH, 15OT, LB7, and several others. They are crap!

The biggest problem is that many people have grown up not knowing the difference between a KNIFE and a knife-like-object. And FYI, most of the companies mentioned here are importing at least a few patterns of knives from the Pacific Rim to satisfy that market. Even Imperial Schrade was importing components as early as the late 1990's.

Another problem is labor (including child labor laws and safety regulations), energy, taxes and material costs. The chinese do not have such problems. When your industry is government supported, and provided with child and slave labor, you can make knives cheap, and sell them cheap.

Yes, Camillus has had problems, and errors were made like hiring the consultant that was at the helm when the Schrade ship hit the sand. But maybe they, unlike Schrade, will find a turnaround point, or a sugardaddy.

Codger
 
What we have seen in SADC is the flooding of local markets with low, low prices and cheap goods. The classic is of cloth and clothing that is cheap by price and quality.

For a time the local population benefits from cheap imports.

Then:

The local mills and clothing manufacturers close.

The cost of imported goods rise but not their quality.

So the local, usually poor, population now has to buy lower quality kit at nearly the same price as before, but they have more unemployment than before so they can only buy the cheaper goods.

Wake up. This is technically dumping using the ignorance of the majority.
 
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