Yep, I found that out.Originally Posted by John Lanciani
I've always bought the Starrett products still made here.
Contributor
Yep, I found that out.
I've always bought the Starrett products still made here.
"What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing.
It also depends on what sort of person you are.”
Contributor
Private equity firms generally load up the acquired company with a lot of debt which has to be serviced. That leaves little money for research, marketing and other needs of the company. The best you can hope for is that the private equity company eventually sells the acquired company to an entity that wants to build on the products and reputation.
I'd tell the employees to "look out". Private equity companies usually have to reduce expenses (read people) to service that debt.
Mike
Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.
I quit and became a full time woodworker a year after being bought by a company that got their funding from a private equity company.
Like said above, the company never had investment money on hand because it was getting eaten up by the investors returns. Once that investment firm had enough they left and our company got funding by another firm etc etc.
It COULD be that this investment firm is different. But in the latest business environment of stock buy backs and ceo or shareholder value ratio to employees going absolutely crazy... I doubt it. But hey anything can happen.
Yes, I have 3 phase!
Member
To woodworkers, it is merely sad, but to machinists, it is heart breaking. The metalworker side of me liked Mitutoyo over Starrett. To a Canuck, they are both imported tools.
Contributor
I prefer Mitutoyo also.
My gage blocks, dial indcators, digital calipers, all Mitutoyo.
"What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing.
It also depends on what sort of person you are.”
Contributor
I was hired by a small privately owned corporation when my enlistment ended in 1976. 20 months later after being promoted to management, the company got into a financial bind due to the passing of the "certificate of need" national legislation and a well-known global corporation purchased us. A couple years later I transferred to Idaho. 4 years after arriving here, J&J sold us to GE. During my 34-year career until I awoke deaf forcing my retirement for safety reasons, I never had to look for a job and yet survived 4 Rifs. Not all corporate buyouts or mergers result in worsening product quality or elimination of positions.
Offshore quality can be as good as US made quality or Japanese quality. It's a matter of setting standards and being ready to pay for it. I have used Starrett tools professionally and personally. I hope they maintain their quality history.
Ken
So much to learn, so little time.....
I used to work for GE (O&G before it got split off into Baker Hughes / GE)
GE stopped pensions for new hires in 2012. GE stopped adding to people's pensions in 2021. GE did a huge stock buy back in 2023 of 15 billion - their biggest yet. Congrats to all the shareholders! Sorry to all the GE employees who got a piddly raise.. it was a tough year. Maybe next year. GE decided to have stock buy backs vs pension payouts.
It's a changing world.. and not for the better.
Maybe I'm a pessimist or maybe I'm a realist, but I don't see quality of US goods ever going up w/ these super big companies unless something changes. And I don't have any optimism for large private companies either.
Yes, I have 3 phase!
Contributor
I guess it could be worse.
At least it wasn't Stanley B&D or Irwin that bought them.
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." - John Lennon
Contributor
Couldn't agree more
Contributor
Andrew, I wish life was simple but it's not.
I stayed in management for 14 months before resigning my position and returning to a bottom feeding field engineering position. I was placed in a position where it became a matter of performing a VPs demands which meant giving up my moral values. About 2 months after I resigned, the VP was fired by J&J. I returned to a field engineering position. 6 1/2 years later, we were sold to GE. For the record I never did agree with Neutron Jack's antics. J&J offered 401Ks after they bought us. My wife and I found it an easy way to save money for long term savings. Later GE did the same and we went with one there too. If you don't see it, you don't miss it. Up until last month I owned GE and GEHC stock. Still own some GEHC stock. Was I a rich shareholder? Hardly but I did own some and still do. I was told that most major corporations have switched to improved and increased 401K strategies versus full pensions. A former coworker who is also now retired joined about 2012 and he got a hybrid pension/401K offering. In my 34 years working for 2 major corporations, I survived 6 RIFs, IIRC.
Andrew, I was 14 when my driller father woke me up one morning at 0100 asking if I wanted to make some money. The drill bit was wore out and the derrick hand had shown up drunk on a night when Dad had to make a trip. At age 15 I began roughnecking morning tower and going to HS days. I finished HS that way. My younger brother did the same. Christmas Eve of 1966 south of Newton, IL I worked all night on the floor of an untarped rig in the freezing rain as we fished to recover 11 drill collars that were left in the hole after a collar washed out. At age 17 I promised myself there had to be a better way to make a living. I found one. My father died in a doghouse on the floor of an oil rig in 1972. I am proudly former oil field trash. BTW, I have screwed on a few Hughes bits but that was several decades ago.
I wouldn't begin to say that GE or any corporation are always good. At the same time, I would not condemn all of them either.
A company that goes out of business supports no workers. If a company's major market switches to a buy cheap, quality be damned place in the market, management is put in a difficult and complex situation. Either reduce costs, expand the market share, seek new markets or go out of business. Labor wages and benefits are costs, meeting environmental standards produces costs, higher priced raw materials are costs, shipping costs, taxes, etc. Thus, for a company to stay in business and support some workers, manufacturing may have to move overseas. You can buy any quality level you desire overseas, it just costs money. Those are realities.
Last edited by Ken Fitzgerald; 03-21-2024 at 12:22 AM.
Ken
So much to learn, so little time.....
Contributor
s/Mitutoyo/Starrett/g
Contributor
s/Mitutoyo/Starrett/g
no comprendo your post
"What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing.
It also depends on what sort of person you are.”
Contributor
I think modern manufacturing has made it far easier to make tools of similar enough quality to the high quality tools that Starrett makes for far less money. I mean, all of the iGauging stuff I've bought is definitely plenty accurate for making furniture. And I've bought plenty of Starrett stuff over the years. But it just doesn't seem like you need to pay $200 for a combination square that's square anymore. I mean, the PEC stuff is 30% cheaper and made in the USA already, right?
That said, that $15 Irwin combination square from THD is now and has always been unusable.
Contributor
I'm not sure they are planning to gut Starrett at all. Looking at their list of companies I think they are more like Berkshire Hathaway in that they purchase companies and help them flourish. Time will tell. Here's a link of that lists their holdings.
https://middleground.com/companies/
Contributor
Doug Starrett has been a decent steward of the company for many years. I hope that this transition benefits the 1,800 people that work at Starrett's. The reason the tools are such high quality is that the people who work there are good at what they do. Many of my relatives and neighbors have worked there for decades. Perhaps the transition from a family owned company to a private equity owned company can preserve the human capitol that makes the company so valuable.
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