Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Predicting Procaps' Future
Wondering what will happen in the wake of Procaps loss of the Walmart contract? For one informed take, look here. Leaves me wondering if Richmond is more likely selling off what he still owns or looking to buy back what he doesn't.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
20 comments:
Look what happened to JT. I think Walmart may have been what was keeping the machines at Procaps running.
Dutch auction.
Possible buyers are waiting for Procaps price drops down till the "right price". Richmond got his newer and better paint factory up and running so he got no "paint" reason to buy. KEE got former RPS paint facilities...
What seems more real - some other investor can buy it to switch from paint to beauty/nutritional/pharmaceutical production.
or Tippmann buy it.
or Kee buy it anyway, to consolidate their position further.
Those are my choices.
Richmond is still a shareholder in Procaps, isn't he?
Procaps will live on because of their sales to fields. No doubt they'll have to adjust a bit to offset the loss, but I don't see it being the end of them. Fact is, their wholesale pricing structure for paint is better than Kee's.
Kee has made a few mis-steps this year. The quality of their Nightmare and Heat lines slipped a bit during the summer. This seems to be an annual occurrence for Kee. I don't know if the issue is related to production volumes or transportation issues, but the drop in quality was noticeable.
Another misstep has been the shutting down of the Chicago warehouse. Paint for portions of the Midwest is coming out of Missouri now. It doesn't seem like a big deal until you realize that some areas that used to get next-day deliveries on paint are now waiting two days for their paint. The shipping trucks aren't climate controlled, so that means the paint is at the mercy of the weather for two days.
The quality issues and the two day ship times were a deal breaker for me. I switched my field to Procaps and I haven't looked back.
Tippmann buying it is a possibility. They have an extensive line of everything other than paint and good retail distribution and have worked with Procaps in the past. Whether Tippmann wants to bother with paint sales, however...
You may look back when you get your invoice from Procaps and it bears no resemblance to what you actually ordered.
Another issue I forgot about was Kee's recent change to shipping. Their shipper prefers that shipping costs be paid directly by the field/store, rather than Kee. I won't speculate on the reason behind the change, but it's been a pain in the butt. Our shipping costs doubled and were inconsistent from one order to the next.
Hey B-Bob,
Just call Gino from Kee Canada, the prices he gives are totally negotiable, and he nearly always gives free shipping as he can claim that customers are 'grandfathered in'. It's a sweet work-around. Once you find the sales guy that loves to cut corners for you and ignore any of the new policies - you're golden!
And now, once his boss finds him, he's screwed.
This is not about Procaps, this is about Kee/JT now selling there range of products in to Walmart.
Procaps did not have the contract last year and have not got next year... big deal!
This is more of JT getting there foot back into the big box but now they drag in Kee and Empire and everything else they own.
My question is; Is this good for paintball, is this going to kill the store.. the final nail!!
FYI, Mister Q is not my husband. I'm way too much of a slut to hold down one of those.
Hmmmm, the store will always be around. But this may hurt some of the stores that can't handle it.
JT USA is the mass market brand for KEE. All products under this name will be found only in dicks sporting goods, walmart, sport chalet, etc.
Empire is the flagship brand. These are higher quality products and will be found in paintball focused retail and online stores. Invert and other brands are being integrated into the Empire brand.
Some of the rental/entry level markers may be spotted at both Walmart and your local paintball store. There will be differences in packaging and in some cases features that will be offered. This is both added value to the stores and protection from price wars with the big box retailers.
In 2011 we will start to see JT Pro-flexes rebranded as Empire Pro-flexes, further reinforcing the notion that empire is the premium brand.
Hope that clears up any misconceptions.
Really? Running interference or PR for KEE? What you said may be true, but the way you said it Justin kind of kills your credibility. I wouldn't expect to read anything different from a KEE PR shill.
Procaps never based it's business model selling to Wal-Mart, unlike JT and they went bankrupt. We were fine before them, and we will be fine after. We only had the account for over a year. Procaps is profitable now, just as it was when we had Wal-Mart. Not as profitable now, yes.. but still profitable. Procaps has hired on more sales staff also and we are going to focus on long term and where we believe the future growth of our sport is, which are the paintball fields and stores. As a matter of fact, Procaps has put in large investment going into our plant for improvements to better serve our customers in to the future and also lots of new stuff. 2011 is going to be the year of DXS and VForce...
2011 is going to be the year of GI and Richmond face it
@CC: Its not always a conspiracy. I had my hand on some information and figured I would fill you in on the details. Jason Taitano (KEE Marketing VP) and Simon Stevens (Product Development) spent an hour at PB Extravaganza explaining how the transition process was going to work.
Would you rather I did not come across clear and concise? Maybe next time I should skip the punctuation.
Justin, not to continue the little spat but if you think you're being objective by presenting one-sided information that only displays the positives for paintball with no possible negatives you either lack critical thinking skills or were shilling for another company. That's really ok to be a shill, because we all do it. I just didn't expect it (ha) from a supposed media source.
How about the other side of the coin? You seriously think sales in Walmart have no effect on the paintball store? I would say it's a two edge sword, in that it cuts both ways. Walmart picks up some entrants to the market at one end and robs the shop of repeat business for paint, air fills and encourages outlaw ball at the other.
Tell me where those guys who buy their paint at Walmart are playing? Local field? Buying from their local shop?
Ah, but wait, you said it adds value for the store... hmmm... maybe the words of those individuals you feel like a big man for being able to name drop said "add value" but that's far from the case.
I wouldn't rate it as all bad for the shop, not by a long shot. Like I said, cuts both ways... probably 65% negative and 35% positive for the shop in my estimation. As a media character, it would be nice to see you actually show the other side of the coin and not just run PR. So this nameless faceless commenter who has more time in the industry than you probably have on this world called you on it.
I like your site. Like what you do. I'd like you to be a little better and be the independent voice pb needs. Not someone who shills for a big company because they want the ad dollars, value the connections, and likes free crap. Maybe that's too much to ask. My advice? Your roll model is right here blogging on this site. Follow his example.
Jesus CC..
You realize that this is a BLOG site, right? You can't expect balanced coverage from a blog (even if Baca seems to have higher journalistic standards than the paintball media at large.) And if you can't expect it from a blog, it seems a bit far-fetched to expect someone COMMENTING on a blog to deliver a fully balanced article in their comment.
Justin had some information that many of us didn't have, so he added a comment with the info. We should all be thankful he put forth the effort.
If he posted it as an ARTICLE on his NEWS site, then yes, we should expect a broader analysis of the situation. But he didn't. Even if he did, and you thought he was less than fiar or complete, he's even kind enough to give you a comments section to take him to task about it.
I don't think anyone would say that selling in big-box retailers doesn't effect stores. But I don't think anyone, other that store owners, would suggest that paintball as a whole would be better off with no big-box presence. At least KEE seems to be putting some effort into giving paintball stores as much help as possible differentiating themselves.
my first gun and case of paint was from wally world, never been to a real paintball field and was more interested in airsoft at the time. BUT they had a buy one get one deal that was too good to refuse and since then ive balled at least once a month and dont plan to stop. jus sayin.
Post a Comment