My optimism for them to succeed comes from my not-joyous memories of starting a new business. I want to support the new SIG for any products they can supply. The hobby business is certainly at a historical tough spot now. A challenge for them for sure.
I wish them only success.
If you have been through the drill of starting and trying to build a business, then you understand what I'm trying to say. I have been involved in establishing and building up of three businesses in my working career, and all three were manufacturing businesses started from scratch. The deal with SIG really isn't much different, only they are starting with an establish name brand and somewhat of a product line. Imagine buying a business that has been successfully producing a line of products for over 50 years, then throw all of that away and start over!! In my view that is essentially what they are doing. Add in the problems with the economy, supply chains, the pandemic, and a shrinking, changing market and you got yourself quite a chore ahead of you!! I see some similarities with the great Planes takeover of Top Flite. All they really wanted was some product names and lines like Monokote, the Gold Seal R/C kits, and a few other tidbits and then they literally threw the rest away in the dumpster!! From what I hear from people that were there, they pitched everything they were not interested in, including tooling and support stock. That allowed them to take that stuff off the books, and it was how George Aldrich got the rights to the Nobler and Flite Streak back so Brodak could change the name of their kits that they called Lightning Streak and then produced Georges Original Nobler kit. Brodak isn't too different from what SIG was in that they do a lot of their own stuff in house also to help control cost and quality. Brodak owned print shops and other business in the area that helped him out in that respect, I believe. If you liked those really nice catalogs that Hazel signed for you, SIG printed those also. They had some small presses and some bindery equipment to do all that themselves, and were familiar with it because that was what Glenn and Hazel did for a living before the hobby business came along. They had an old, 64" two color Heidelberg sheet fed press in the basement of one of the older buildings that they printed their plans on. Glenn and a couple of other employees were the only ones that knew how to tune it and tweak it, and once it was running right, they printed plans until they had what they needed for a long time plus any extra if they had paper left! They did their own plastic injection molding equipment for those kind of parts, vacu-formed their own canopies and cut their own foam wing cores, formed their own metal parts, filled their own bottles, cans and glue tubes in machines that Glenn built. They had their own machine shop and carpenter shop. It really was an amazing thing to see , but that is how people thought back then, that this is what you need to do to be successful and they were. I hear people say "Well, they should have gotten a laser cutter for making kits" but these people didn't know that SIG had one of the first ones in the industry, did their own laser cutting in addition to contract work for other kit makers and other types of lase work for other customers!! The original machine was very old, but still worked, and the last owner before Rizzo was able to sell it and replaced it with two newer, abut smaller machines, but were much faster and more up top date. There was everything there in Montezuma to produce much of the SIG line of products, including a trained work force, and they walked away from it. I could understand eliminating things, cutting back here and there as needed, but to just walk away from it all didn't make sense. I'm sure it all didn't bring very much at the auction. I'm not sure if the building and lot has been sold. I'll have to get in touch with Becky Van Dee and see what she knows about the old site.
I went up there to Montezuma for 28 years straight for the C/L contest and got to know Hazel, Maxey, Mike Gretz and Mike Pratt , Bob Nelson and all the others there quite well and considered them friends. I got to meet and know many of the great people in this hobby there also as a bonus. The factory was something that I had dreamed of seeing as a kid when I read they held tours and when I finally made it there and got to see it all, it was like my "Field of Dreams" and it was in Iowa also!! I really would like to see them succeed in this endeavor, but from the way they are going about it, I just have my doubts and I think it will just be a fraction of what it once was. I think we all have been experiencing what some might call the "Golden Age of Model Aviation" for the last 40 years and it will never be the same as it was.
Type at you later,
Dan McEntee
Topic: SIG control line IS coming back! (Read 335609 times)