John Deere buying Stihl?

Heard this may happen as Andreas Stihl is getting old and ready to move on.
Anyone heard anything about this?

Not I. I wonder what's up?

Just found this on the web....wonder if it is a prelim to a buyout?

JOHN DEERE ANNOUNCES MARKETING AGREEMENT WITH STIHL INC. AND STIHL LTD.

STIHL Inc. and STIHL Ltd. Named John Deere's Preferred Supplier of Handheld Outdoor Power Equipment
CARY, North Carolina (July 29, 200 — John Deere's Worldwide Commercial & Consumer Equipment Division announces STIHL Inc. and STIHL Ltd. as the preferred supplier of gas powered and corded handheld power equipment in the United States and Canada. The announcement unites two premium brands within the outdoor power equipment industry and provides residential and commercial customers shopping at John Deere dealers the best of both worlds.
"For over 170 years, John Deere has remained committed to providing its customers an exemplary experience in the form of durable, high-quality products and service solutions," said Bob Barbour, Group Director, Marketing Operations and Customer Support for the Worldwide Commercial & Consumer Equipment Division. "Partnering with STIHL, a recognized brand that shares a proven quality record within the powered handheld equipment industry, enables us to provide our customers a complete portfolio of outdoor product solutions."
The existing John Deere branded handheld power equipment will soon be substituted with the STIHL portfolio at qualifying John Deere servicing dealers across North America. Barbour said, "This decision will enable us to better support growth strategies and offer our customers an industry leading brand of property owner and commercial grade portable power products." Joint marketing efforts will take place between John Deere and STIHL to increase awareness of both brands' product offerings at qualifying John Deere dealer locations.

It's an agreement... not a buyout.

Do you really think Stihl would sell out to a tractor company?

Gary

Yes indeed Frans, Andreas Stihl would be getting up there if he hadn't died 35 years ago.

John Deere had chainsaws years ago. The dealers didn't like it because they had to train their mechanics to work on them in addition to all the tractor stuff they need to know and they weren't used to working on a low value piece of equipment. With a tractor worth tens of thousands of dollars almost any repair is worth it and the dealers get these big reconditioning jobs worth many t thousands of dollars. With a chainsaw or power trimmer you are dealing with a piece of equipment worth several hundred dollars and you have every Jose landscaper in there agonizing over weather to do a 75 dollar repair or buy a new trimmer. That's what they told me back then anyway. The saws they sold then weren't worthy of the John Deere name also.

John Deere pulled their manufacturing out of Canada recently. The bastads

Deere has never had much luck with the small equipment. They bought Homelite years ago and painted them green. It didn't work out and Homelite bought themselves back. People were all the time comming in to the dealership I worked at needing parts but we couldn't get them.
Thn they started selling the cheapies at Home Depot, I forget who made the trimmers, but we wouldn't even service them. They were crap from the get go!!
The Deere signed up with Efco two years ago. It was a win-win, Efcho got a market in the US and Deere got a good chainsaw. I wondered how long it would last. Now people will be looking at JD dealers for parts and not be able to find them!
I don't see the Stihl deal lasting much longer. I think the regular Stihl dealers will raise up quite a stir over this. They are sold "areas" and garunteed no competition in that area. Sounds like a law suit waiting to happen!

I see green and yellow Stihls coming to a Home Depot near you.

I have yet to see a saw made by John Deere.
Most success they had so far was with Echo saws.

This mean nothing otrher than that they will be buying Stihl saws to rebage to John Deere...

Now that I think of it I am not sure I have seen a Homelite renamed as John Deer either...

The model 12 could easely be thought of as a Homelite I suppose, but it is a Remington.

I hadn't heard anything about re-badging to John Deere, they are just going to be the "official" saw to be sold at JD dealers, a fine plan indeed, as I have a friend that owns five JD dealers, and has offered to get me whatever I want at very reasonable prices.

Dave Shepard said:

I hadn't heard anything about re-badging to John Deere, they are just going to be the "official" saw to be sold at JD dealers, a fine plan indeed, as I have a friend that owns five JD dealers, and has offered to get me whatever I want at very reasonable prices.

Click to expand...

Dave, please substitute, "get me whatever I want" to, "get us whatever we want". It's just a minor word change

Stumper: Yes indeed Frans, Andreas Stihl would be getting up there if he hadn't died 35 years ago.

Click to expand...

You don't know too much about how the Stihl company is run, do you?

One guy, one company. Has always been that way.

The old John Deere saws were "ECHO'S" . The twin cylinder & others were painted yellow. I worked on lots as an old John Deere Tech.. They always looked for a cheaper deal. Echo String Trimmers painted yellow. Echo Hedge Trimmers & Blowers ( hand-held & back-pack). They were priced way too high .

Twin cylinder? That's wild.

Frans said:

You don't know too much about how the Stihl company is run, do you?

One guy, one company. Has always been that way.

Click to expand...

Sorry, but things have changed, like everywhere I guess.

http://www.stihl.com/isapi/default.asp?contenturl=/unternehmen/presse/tagespresse/540.htm


Squisher,
The Echo twin was the 610 evl, smooth running saw.

Solo had a big ol' twin cylinder too... Solo 611 I believe... 100cc's

Gary

The Solo twin was and is an extremely smooth running saw I might add . It is not the fastest but does very well cutting effortlessly . By far the smoothest runnng saw I have personaly over had the pleasure to run .

It's like compairing the ride of a Cadillac to the ride of a '49 Ford .

The Solo Twin is a very fun saw to run.
It accelerates like lightning and is strong for its cc.
Mine is anyway.... Mine is 110cc. There is 100cc and 110cc



John Deere/Echo is not a real twin like this Solo Twin with side by side seperated cylinders, Echo is opposed and share crankcase. A "Boxer" type engin.
Yanmar had a couple models like this too...

What were the advantages (if any) of two cylinders?

More torque... for big wood.

Gary

It has excellent balance regarding how smoothly the engine runs .

I remember as a teenager back when Brit motorcycles were the rage .A 500 CC Matchless /AJS single was a bone thumping power torquey old monster that would nearly shake you out of the seat .On the other hand a 500 twin was about the same power but smooth .Well that is to say smooth for the time period because all old Brit bikes would rattle your teeth out and constantly shook loose parts as they putted happily along .

In this case I belive it has meny advantages, accelleration and heat distrobution would be the first that comes to mind as it has alot more cooling possebuilety's with more cylinder walls.

Weight is the big downside it is heavyer than a one piston saw of same cc.

But a joy to run!

This John Deere /Sthil combo is coming to our area. I did some treework for the owner of our local JD dealer and was talking to him about it. The partnership he is in has six stores or dealerships and they are all going to carry the Sthil line. I don't know how the the other dealers are going to take this but time will tell.

There was a reason why I brought the subject up. I asked if they would need a mechanic for this new line of saws. He said yes and maybe even a salesman and counterman. I asked if I would be considered for this position. Again yes because of my experience with saws.

Nothing will happen happen till Jan. or Feb but I am thinking of this position very seriously if it pays good enough and has a few fringe benifits. I am bored and frustrated with the tree biz and would like to either get out totally or downsize to do just small jobs on the side. The idea of a steady paycheck and a warm dry place to work is appealing to me right now. I don't if I can do it but if the oppurtunity presents itself I am going to take it.

Best of luck with it, Larry. Maybe they might even send you to Stihl school to learn all the tech secrets on their engines.