A rock just came through Mr. C's living room window with a note attached to the offending brick. Word rapidly spreading is that Smart Parts has laid off upwards of 90% of their work force. If true, it doesn't look good for one of paintball's mainstay industries and one of competitive paintball's most loyal supporters. Perhaps this is one reason VFTD didn't receive any official response to this week's earlier rumors from Mr. Curious concerning SP.
No word as to what this move portends but the speculation is rampant and not particularly optimistic about any final resolution.
More as it comes through the window.
UPDATE: Sean Scott of SP (& GI Milsim) has confirmed the layoffs though the exact numbers, reasons and possible ramifications were not covered. For all the haters, particularly those involved in tourney paintball, now might be a good time to consider what this could mean to all of us.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
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9 comments:
Whats the big fuss? The two brothers @ SP decided that was waste of their time do something else than just feed from the patent money.
If majority of owners workload comes from business that gives 15% or less of the income, why not drop that part and just feed from patent money?
This is just a transition from poorly paying marker making business into steady and good patent house. Do you think they care if layoffs are needed? Do you think they care about their markers or customers? Smartparts out of all companies? :D Its business. Its a patent house now. Those guys only need lawyers to ensure patent money rolls in, not marketing, engineers or storehouse workers.
nahnah hey hey goodby.
Smartparts = Fail
I would be interested in who got layed off. With the rumor a short while ago that Sales staff were put on notice to sell more product, if the sales staff is more or less still intact (not laid-off) then my guess is that Smart Parts may have a stockpile of inventory that needs to be sold, with little need to produce more until it's liquidated. Hence, no need for people to develope and manufacture products for the time being. Might as well get rid of them, cut the payroll and try to stay in the black until thngs pick up. Just a thought.
Patent dollars...are you kidding me? No company is selling that many guns this year and the money they paid for the patents well out weighs the cash you think is ruling in.
Predictions:
SP goes into bankruptcy.
Gardners think they can pull a fast one buy SP's IP, Inventory, etc. through the new company Richmond has setup with them GI Milsim.
Unfortunately for them Dye and KEE aren't dumb so they either get into a bidding war to drive up the price of the assets or KEE actuallys buys whatever is left from SP outright.
Prediction 2
The whole paintball world laughs at Smart Parts and acts like a bunch of morons that can't see past their nose, meanwhile a massive corporate investment firm (KEE) that really doesn't care about "paintball" other than the profits they can extract from it just picked up the literall keys to the industry -- Smart Parts' patents.
Prediction 3
See Reiner's comment.
Even with 60 lay offs (as mentioned elsewhere), it is far from 90% of their work force.
And to the haters, "SP =fail" also means dozen of people without a job and health insurance in beautiful Latrobe, PA. Keep that in mind when you'll get your new PS3 under the tree and the temperature goes below 0.
Well I'm not a hater and can see the good and the bad of SP. If we're going to feel bad for the people who lost their jobs as a result of poor market conditions and SP's mismangement, we should also consider those who lost their companies and jobs, as well as those who saw their wages suffer as a result of SP's questionable legal manueverings
SP going under isn't a good thing for paintball. But their history marked by plenty of bad along with the good.
Meanwhile you can take a company like Dye who certainly isn't perfect but also isn't so actively seeking to tear others down as they build themselves up.
I know which company I'd like to serve as the industry model.
@anonachris.
Definitely not saying SP is a model and the hater reference was going toward the 3rd and 4th comment.
What i like in SP is the "mainly made in the US" comparing to 95% of the paintball company manufacturing almost exclusively in china.
I've spent about 2 hours reading retarded comments from 12 year old teens on the Nation and that pisses me off.
I don't want to defend SP in particular but whoever invest time and $$ in the industry adn the game of Paintball.
They aren't perfect, far from that. But, as only a few, there are trying more than just making a buck. They do love paintball.
Anyway... i'll stop bitching and will bring a dozen friends this weekend at the local field. Hopefully if we all do that, the industry as a all will get better.
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