WTF???
That’s the story…
Xmas break.
Don’t worry, its not the 5th.
Whew…
…for you guys anyway…
Josh
Not another Clark scenario I’m assuming.
…Evs…
evs?
Aussie term…means whatever. Not trying to be mean, I simply do not know if he closed for Xmas break or if there is something else going down. You are distributor you tell me. Walker is well liked from everything I’ve ever heard, and I don’t have any first hand experience to make any positive or qualified statements.
So tell me, has Harold c losed his doors? I thoughtt business was going like a bat out of hell.
Hey Deadshaper,
I’m “dyed in the wool” (another cringe cliche) aussie and “evs” left me mystified too, but I get it, like, (what)evs, right?
Anyway, I responded because the demise of any board industry business is never a good thing. So, hoping it is just the Xmas break.
Josh
Okay, so I’ll reply to myself .
I read the other thread that was dated March '06 and it was talking big stuff…growing tenfold, Linden with phone ear, welders welding with no room to put the work…huge daily demand, big name shapers crying for his foam. Goal: 70% of the market.
I’m sorry but I gotta say something here. I’ve been watching dotcommer whiz kids, wannabe shapers with mommy and daddy bucks, others with deeper than deep pockets, etc. and the song keeps coming up the same…take over the world! DOMINATE!!! Get more business than anybody else regardless of what it does to the industry and ultimately the sport.
Myopic views running rampant.
Here’s my response: govern yourself accordingly. If you want world domination be ready to tumble when all your dominos get out of balance and start to tumble, knocking one after another in rapid succession. If you are going to preach sustainable resources on the one hand but have no concern for responsible and reasonable production on the other hand then you’re no better than the guys that build shit for houses that are now stuck between a rock and a hard spot trying to give them away.
I had someone tell me a couple months ago “there’s no future in shaping”. Well, I love what I do, and if there isn’t enough money in shaping then I will pick up the squeegee, and grinder, and router, and…to make my monthly mortgage doing what I like doing. I don’t have to do 1,000 per week to make a good living. I also don’t need Chinese, Mexican, Thai, or Bulgarian labor for that matter.
So my friend that said I have no future will never see any of my boards in their factory for glassing ever again.
The bottom line is, good business plans do not have to be based on unprecedented growth for every company in existence. Crunch your numbers, make a quality product and offer great delivery. Make sure you are happy with your bottom line while retaining HAPPY CUSTOMERS.
If I can’t get 20 shapes a week for least $50 a pop average, I can’t exist in California. There’s a hypothetical example of a bottom line. Now if I move to South Carolina or Texas and buy my house outright I may not need to do that. Everyone is different. I don’t think it is reasonable to assume that ALL businesses are the same. I’ve owned surfshops, a factory, been solo, had 10 employees and supplied other shops both foreign and domestic. Different numbers, needs, and rewards. Also you may want to get more Aspirin as you become more ‘successful’.
It’s just that when I see the current offering of blank companies out there competing for market share, and someone says we want 70% of the market…and I also hear that they sold their foam formula to China (for who knows how much)…I just can’t get all teary eyed over it.
You usually invite the pressures you endure!
“The bottom line is, good business plans do not have to be based on unprecedented growth for every company in existence. Crunch your numbers, make a quality product and offer great delivery. Make sure you are happy with your bottom line while retaining HAPPY CUSTOMERS.”
Wish more people would think that way…
JSS
I feel a rumor coming on.
I dont think so.
I heard the same thing in 06 about Walker’s plans. The problem now…Linden is not there, the second facility is closed and people have been laid off. That doesnt seem like what they would be doing if they are really working towards a 70% marketshare goal.
Dead,
Yep, more than one crowd got a bit carried away after Clark closed…some thought they would be bigshots overnight. It did’nt pan out that way.
World domination is a dangerous concept to entertain.
Josh
Maybe I don’t feel a rumor coming on. There was more than one blank manufacturer prior to Clark closing and did Walker really think it was just going to step in and take 70% market share while everyone else did nothing? There must of been a huge hole in the market for blanks when Clark shut down and shut down the way it did. I could just see some naive types drooling over how much money they were going to make. Hopefully Walker wasn’t one of them. But how many times have you heard the hype as an employee, shareholder, passer by etc? Too busy cranking out blanks to answer the phone, 70% market share. I thought I saw a photo of Gary Linden giving a pep talk to “the troops as well”. Now it sounds like he’s buggered off. It will be interesting to hear from Walker foam and whether “everything’s roses” if/while it’s turning to custard. Even though I don’t buy Walker foam I really hate it when companies tell you everything’s fine when they’re not. Hopefully this isn’t one of those times.
Speed and the rest of you guys…good comments…my kind of people…real.
Dead,
My work with EPS/epoxy pre-dated Black Friday, and I admit to feeling a smug sense of “…told you so…” at the time, but my over-riding sense was to hang on, keep mum, and live by this:-
Prove it before you claim it.
That still serves me well.
Josh
Walker is not closing down.
I talk to Gary Linden several times a day… in fact I’ll see him in about an hour… he says Walker plans on scaling back a bit to focus on quality rather than quantity. He doesn’t feel the need to crank for the sake of cranking.
If you’re not already one of his regular customers it may be harder to get blanks, but the blanks he’s making are getting better and better all the time.
K…good to hear. Show him my ‘complicated’ business plan (LOL). Maybe he already saw it or figured it out for himself.
Nowadays people pay big bucks for plans like it. They don’t seem t get the idea of maximizing with the minimum…just look at all the landfills.
Sometimes it’s good to stop the big noisy grinding ‘wheels of progress’ so you can hear yourself and think about where you’re at and where you’re going.
guess that’s oo hard for some of us…
This rumor came from an industry heavy who works with Walker daily so in my view there was no need for me to seek out a confirmation from Walker. It wasn’t from Jim and obviously I’m no newspaper reporter but I don’t really care to share who it was. That sounds very silly as I type it but oh well…
Sure there’s a lot of other foam options out there but when I heard they closed (for me) it was more of why didn’t they thrive, nonetheless just survive, when it seemed they had a nice place in the industry after Clark shut their doors and as I typed the “news” I was looking up at a Surftech ad.