Which is the most profitable knife company in the world?

golok

golok

Joined
Oct 20, 2000
Messages
4,453

It just crossed my mind that the answer to the above question could be the Swiss knife company.

It has been around for like a zillion years and the Swiss knives can be found in almost every part of the world.

The questions that criss-cross my mind are:
What make the company so profitable? Is it their grasp of modern trends? Or is it that it is able to sense the needs of the man in the street as well as the guy in the outdoors and satisfy the whole lot of them out there?

Any knife company that wants to survive in these trying times would probably have to keep abreast with developments, not only with regard to technology but also with the changing fashionable trends that fascinate knife collectors worldwide.

I am constantly amazed at how the Swiss Army knife chaps have been able to tango with some of the most innovative and creative knife companies that have sprung up in recent years.

Results have shown that the SAK people have more than succeeded in keeping up with their industry rivals.



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Make Love your strongest weapon. Compassion your shield and forgiveness your armour.
 
You can't go wrong with a simple folding toolbox. A red scaled SAK is not intimidating to non-knife people and provides a gadget factor. Take a 100 people and give them there choice between a SAK and a MT and guess which knife will be chosen. Even sheeple with deeprooted fears af knives and guns more then likely own a SAK. Hell I'll wager just about every anti gunner out there has a SAK in the top drawer of there dresser regardless of whether they carry it or not. SAK's are like kitchen knives no fear factor involved.
Bob
 
Before this thread spins off into Cutco and Ginsu land, let's agree that by "profitable knife companies," we're referring to knife companies that make reasonable quality knives, not dime-a-dozen trash.

At any rate, I don't think they're the MOST profitable, but I do know that an AWFUL lot of Schrade Old Timers are carried by just plain folk (non knife knuts) who happen to need a reliable pocketknife in their day-to-day activities. When you sell that many knives, you'd better be making some kind of profit!
With that said, though, I'd also guess that Victorinox is right up there with anyone. Their Classic has to be the most popular pocketknife in the world (though the Rambler is better).
 
My guess is that the most profitable knife company in the world probably has a name like "Lucky Smokestack Manufacturing Company" and is located in Taiwan or South Korea or some place like that where they can get crappy steel really cheap, workers who work twelve-hour days six days a week for pennies a day and no benifits, and where they don't have to deal with unions and OSHA and so forth. These companies can bang out a cheap kitchen knife for about a penny total cost, materials, labor, overhead, total cost. They can sell that knife to an American importer for fifteen cents. That's a 15X profit margin. By the time the knife arrives in the US, shipping and taxes bring it up to 20 cents (yes, if costs five times a much to ship and import the knife as it did to make it). Trucking it from the dock to the wearhouse will add a few cents more. Then, it gets blister packed and boxed up (which, since it's done in the US costs significantly more than manufacturing the knife does) and trucked to a K-Mart near you where you buy a pack of three for five bucks. But, the biggest profit margin along the way is that nameless Asian company. Their name's not even on the package.


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Chuck
Balisongs -- because it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing!
http://www.balisongcollector.com
 
Golok,

Mike Turber said once, that Gerber sells the most knives and tools. They are owned by Fiskars.

Liong

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Follow The Path of Fantasies.
 
I wouldn't count out Camillus. They make so many knives for other companies, maybe Cold Steel right now too, that you can't look only at their own knives, or even just add in Becker. I know they've been referred to as a "giant" in the knife industry. Read that somewhere very recently, but can't recall.


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Asi es la vida

Bugs
 
Swiss army gadget would be more apropriate.

The guys that I know who have one use it to clean their pot pipe or trim their fingernails.

Show them a real knife and their balls shrink up into their bowels. PC problem I guess.

Are they really knife guys... no.

Is it really a knife...no.

Is it a really cheap handy gadget...I suppose. Kinda like one of those multitool credit card things from Sharper Image. LOL

One guy I know likes his in green... you know the green and the orange. He's really formed a bond with it. Lost one, cryied and got another. Go figure.



[This message has been edited by RKnight (edited 04-13-2001).]
 
I would definitely say Victorinox. Besides their SAKs, they also make fine kitchen knives as well. Victorinox also seems to have a larger distribution than Wenger.

Just as an example, I would also have to agree with an earlier poster who mentioned the Victorinox Classic is probably the most popular pocketknife in the world. I've seen more Classics on Key rings than I care to count, even by people who care nothing about knives. (Mine rides in my left front pocket).

I believe Victorinox SAKs are found in virtually every country in the world. Even in countries where other manufacturers' knives have probably never been sold.
Jim
 
I'd say Randall, their knives are great users, but if ya just want to collect them, that's fine too. Great quality, great name what else can I say? Hell the gummint used 'em for Space flight.

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Peace

Paul
Custom Knife Purveyor
Circle P Knives
 
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