Is Benchmade as a company not profitable?

They came out with the very popular Bugout and now have another variation of it. If they weren't profitable I doubt they'd be introducing another Bugout model so quickly.
 
jill jackson said:
They came out with the very popular Bugout and now have another variation of it. If they weren't profitable I doubt they'd be introducing another Bugout model so quickly.
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Good point. The Bugout does seem rather popular. As was the Griptilian. As is the Adamas, and the 940, as was the 710, the list goes on... ;)
 
mtngunr said:
another internet rumor thread soon listed as fact in the internet echo chamber. OP gave ZERO money numbers.
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It’s not a rumor, it is a thread about speculation just for an interesting topic. We can’t get the numbers unless an insider discloses information due to the company being private company.

The thread is open to any information as others have noted above about Benchmade expanding in their local area. I only gave my speculation based on the moves they have been making.

Infact the only fact we can say for sure from this thread is that illuminati shapeshifting space lizards run benchmade.
 
Lapedog said:
It’s not a rumor, it is a thread about speculation just for an interesting topic. We can’t get the numbers unless an insider discloses information due to the company being private company.

The thread is open to any information as others have noted above about Benchmade expanding in their local area. I only gave my speculation based on the moves they have been making.

Infact the only fact we can say for sure from this thread is that illuminati shapeshifting space lizards run benchmade.
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And we can speculate as to why you started it. Google will love it.
 
Nice knives but I have never been able to throw down the $$ for a benchmade knife. It’s not that I will not spend $$ on a knife. I have a hinderer sparrow, a sebenza and a few other high dollar knives. But I find spyderco to offer better models/prices when compared to what benchmade offers.
 
jimmyd1982 said:
It seems to me if they were struggling they would double down on lower quality budget knives, using their name and reputation to sell to non enthusiasts the way Gerber and several other companies do.
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This makes a lot of sense to me.

I do agree that they are shrinking in relevance ... to the tiny group of us that post on BF and are always searching for the next best thing, no matter thin we have to slice it. I don't think, however, that we can extrapolate our interest to the larger market.
 
Megawatt308 said:
Nice knives but I have never been able to throw down the $$ for a benchmade knife. It’s not that I will not spend $$ on a knife. I have a hinderer sparrow, a sebenza and a few other high dollar knives. But I find spyderco to offer better models/prices when compared to what benchmade offers.
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If you haven’t owned one how do you know?

Anyway, I’m out. This thread is just full of dodge. See ya.
 
jimmyd1982 said:
It seems to me if they were struggling they would double down on lower quality budget knives, using their name and reputation to sell to non enthusiasts the way Gerber and several other companies do.
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Not necessarily. They know their market and a business can cater to its main market to try and increase revenue.

Pilsner said:
Man, this thread. :rolleyes:

Again with the QC attack, and yet again not citing personal experience. It’s in general because other companies will be mentioned. Like the Chinese companies who are benefiting from manufacturing costs undreamt of in Europe or the USA? Wow. Who knew?

For the record, as Marcinek points out, we don’t know squat, but what matters to any business is whether it is working for them. If they are going with less costly materials, then that is their choice. We’ll see how it goes. They have a really nice custom generator going on for people like us.
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Actually as it says at the bottom this is no attempt to bash BM in any way. I didn’t list personal experiences because 1 guy’s anecdotal evidence doesn’t really prove anything. The reason I said the QC is in dispute is from the many people who mention it is a problem, and the many others who have said it has improved.


Let’s keep the thread a friendly discussion guys. If you don’t want to comment then don’t. I just was wondering about info other members might have that would match or oppose what I speculated. Just thought it was an interesting topic. If the thread gets too hostile I will close it.
 
Lapedog said:
Not necessarily. They know their market and a business can cater to its main market to try and increase revenue.



Actually as it says at the bottom this is no attempt to bash BM in any way. I didn’t list personal experiences because 1 guy’s anecdotal evidence doesn’t really prove anything. The reason I said the QC is in dispute is from the many people who mention it is a problem, and the many others who have said it has improved.
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:rolleyes:
 
I think they're fine. Benchmade has always been sort of a peaks and valleys type company in terms of model popularity and innovation. They got a pretty nice network of dealers, and as mentioned a few posts ago, they inhabit that sweet spot where they're considered a premium brand, but not too expensive.
 
tltt said:
I think they're fine. Benchmade has always been sort of a peaks and valleys type company in terms of model popularity and innovation. They got a pretty nice network of dealers, and as mentioned a few posts ago, they inhabit that sweet spot where they're considered a premium brand, but not too expensive.
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They definitely have a very good distribution network. I know that they are a huge company. Every company has peaks and valleys in their performance.

I wonder how much of their customers is knife collectors and aficionados vs people who walk into a brick and mortar store and decide they are going to splurge on one of the high end knives there. The kind of “average guy customer.” I’d be interested to know those numbers for any business.

They say that a company’s customers follow a Pareto distribution like anything else in nature. 20% of the customers are 80% of the sales. A really interesting law that comes up in all kinds of places.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_distribution
 
Lapedog said:
Not necessarily. They know their market and a business can cater to its main market to try and increase revenue.



Actually as it says at the bottom this is no attempt to bash BM in any way. I didn’t list personal experiences because 1 guy’s anecdotal evidence doesn’t really prove anything. The reason I said the QC is in dispute is from the many people who mention it is a problem, and the many others who have said it has improved.


Let’s keep the thread a friendly discussion guys. If you don’t want to comment then don’t. I just was wondering about info other members might have that would match or oppose what I speculated. Just thought it was an interesting topic. If the thread gets too hostile I will close it.
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IBTL!:cool:
 
TheEdge01 said:
Well, Sal Glesser commented on a thread I started a couple years ago concerning Benchmade. He complimented them as a business and said other knife companies would love to have their share of the market. So apparently Spyderco views them as a strong competitor.
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I think Benchmade's revenue is a LOT more than Spyderco. I'll try to find a reference when I get back home.

Edit: Hoover's estimates BM revenue at $39 million, and Spyderco at around $15 million.
 
Benchmade started enforcing MAP pricing about 2-3 years ago and has been sticking to their guns on it too. Apparently it's been working so well that Spyderco has jumped on the MAP bandwagon as well. CRK has been doing it for years. A little company called Apple has been doing it since they took over the world with the iPhone. Rolex dominates the luxury watch market, and not only do they dictate what retailers can charge. They purposefully limit production to keep demand up.
As a matter of fact I can't think of ANY sinking, or unprofitable company that forces retailers to sell their products at the price dictated by that manufacturer.

MAP alone should be proof enough that Benchmade is doing just fine. But I think I'll point out a few other things to show how nearsighted and foolish your "observations" really are.

Regarding The cutting Lone Wolf and Bone Collector lines. That was directly related to their release of the Hunt line of knives. They ditched the Ritter Grip and released the VERY similar bladed Freek (a pretty crappy move IMO). That makes sense because they eliminated a large amount of competion right away. H&K was what originally replaced the Red Box line of more buget oriented Chinese built knives. The H&K/Red Box lines never competed well against the more budget oriented brands like Kershaw and CRKT, or even Spyderco's Tenacious lineup. The H&k line really only had (AFAIK) one knife that was selling well in the end, and that one was made in BM's Oregon plant. So why not cut bait and stick with what works. Also an added advantage is they are able claim to be a 100% made in the USA brand.

Now to me these are moves by a company that no longer wants, or needs to cash in on other brands name recognition and wants to stand completely on it's own as a brand. Again, NOT something a company that is struggling for profit would do.

Finally, the QC issues. This one is purely speculative on my behalf, but it makes sense to me.
From what I've heard Les DeAsis has been pulling away from running things and his son has been taking a much bigger role within the company. Whenever such changes happen there are bound to be some growing pains and since there have been reports that QC has been improving, they may be coming out of it. Only time will tell.

Sorry for the novel guys. It just seemed to me like a hater who just pulled an unfounded theory out of his ass, and see if anyone would give him some Attaboys and... I really have no idea what prompted this thread other than to bash the brand. No, I'm not a BM fanboy. I am a fan, but I'm also a big ZT and Spydie fan as well. I would have reacted the same if there was a similar asinine thread on either of them.

Whew. I'm going to take a nap now.
 
Scott321 said:
I think Benchmade's revenue is a LOT more than Spyderco. I'll try to find a reference when I get back home.

Edit: Hoover's estimates BM revenue at $39 million, and Spyderco at around $15 million.
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Wow!!! I guess Spyderco would see them as strong competition.:eek:
 
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