Wenger have always been experimenting. In fact if anything, Wenger innovated too much, took too many risks and that's what doomed them.
Victorinox AG is an
Aktiengesellschaft or joint stock corporation, but their stock is "privately held": it isn't traded on the SIX Swiss Exchange or the Berne eXchange and you need to know the right people to own it. Publicly traded corporations have shareholder relations officers to blow smoke at analysts and big investors, and they hold dog & pony shows. Privately held corporations have less incentive to lie. I think Victorinox had a convincing explanation of what went wrong with Wenger's knife business.
Wenger has been an independently managed affiliate, and to some extent a competitor, of Victorinox.
Victorinox AG was competing with itself.
Many consumers were confused by Victorinox's and Wenger's knife product lines
Victorinox makes over 300 different SAKs. Does anyone know how many Wenger makes? What is the difference between a Victorinox Swiss Army Pioneer Pocket Knife and a Wenger 16520 Standard Issue? Look at the questions in our forums. When people need expert help to understand your product line, you have a problem with your product line.
Consumers expect a uniform assurance of quality from us.
Wenger's budget line had a bad reputation. I own two Classic 66 knives, pre- and post-2005. The old Wenger's fit and finish was inferior to Victorinox's. The new one is improved, and it has Victorinox's saw which is better than Wenger's. But the perception of inferiority remained.
we must respond to intensified competition for markets
the worldwide competitive struggle grows ever more intense.
Bloomberg says SAK sales have fallen by 1/3 since 2001. I would like to know where they got their information: but if that is true, it doesn't seem to concern Victorinox.
Both enterprises have held their own in a challenging international economy.
To neutral Switzerland, wars in Asia are part of the world economic cycle. What concerns them is not the mass of profits, but the rate of profit. They are competing with nations in the stage of economic development Europe passed through in the 19th century, when new industries ate their workers alive and labor disputes were settled by the military. No one in Switzerland wants to return to that. Something had to be jettisoned to lighten the load, and that was Wenger's knife business. Victorinox AG can no longer afford the luxury of competing with itself.