Business talk: Weber CEO announces departure

[WillTravelForFood]

The company named Chief Technology Officer Alan Matula as its interim chief executive, effective immediately. Weber is also considering layoffs and other ways to reduce expenses, including by tightening its inventories.

Wonder if this would encourage some improvements/innovation/differentiation in the pellet world, which seems to be the market direction in general vs the reliable charcoal kettle. Or perhaps they should introduce a kettle with a standardized external fan port and method for ambient temp monitoring vs the at-home hacks folks have done around here. (do they have this already? the "smart cooking hub" isn't it)


Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/25/webe...ing-sales.html

[smokenoob]

Scherzinger jumped ship before the storm and they are battening down the hatches.

[Draznnl]

From the coverage of this that I saw on local TV, it seemed he did not jump so much as he got pushed out.

[LA Pork Butt]

I don’t have any answers, but to some degree home BBQ is a nitch market. I think devotes take the lead in new products, and new comers have been the result of the wide spread BBQ shows on the cooking and food channels. I sometimes wonder if we haven’t reached market saturation.

[WillTravelForFood]

Agreed - how many (average) homes typically need more than one outdoor cookery device?

[Oak Smoke]

I have to struggle along with only 5 outdoor cookers. 2-kamados, an old Weber kettle, a Camp Chef combination turkey fryer-fish fryer, and a small Blackstone.

[rlozinak]

Retailers are having a hard time with sales after the covid crunch. Weber is no different.

[jfmorris]

Yep. Grill sales went though the roof in 2020, when people could not get out from their home in a lot of states. Now that they are back in restaurants, grill sales are no longer through the roof like they were. Yet how many of the grill manufacturers probably made false sales forecasts based on the huge increase in demand they saw in 2020...

[BBQandLove]

jfmorris A lot of people in my industry did that, and I would expect that a lot of CEOs did the same thing and now it’s going to bite them. I got no sympathy for them, because it didn’t take very much smarts to know it was a bubble. A lot of swaggering is being turned into a walk of shame.

[jfmorris]

I think LA Pork Butt and WillTravelForFood have a good point.

We might be at a market saturation point - especially when combined with an economy that may be at the tipping point. One quick look at my 401K, E-trade and Robinhood accounts is enough to depress me about the future of the economy.

Aside from folks here, and some buddies in my home brewing club who are into BBQ, most of the world is not like us, with multiple grills in their backyard. Most people I know have a single gas grill of some sort. A very few have a charcoal grill or pellet smoker. And even fewer have the 5 grills folks like me have in the backyard. I actually know ONE guy locally aside from myself, a guy in my home brewing club, who has 5 grills in his backyard. Several of the home brewers I know have kamados, flat tops, pellet grills, etc. But most don't.

I did meet a doctor - Yvonne's cancer surgeon in 2020-2021 - who had a flat top, as well as a Kamado Joe. Chit-chatting with him in the hospital room after her first two cancer surgeries in June 2020 is when I first started looking at flat top grills (griddles), as he was showing me pictures of all the cool cooks he was doing on his Blackstone. But he is the exception rather than the norm I think.

[BBQPhil]

Hard to know what goes on inside corporations, but having been in the corportate world and following Weber's trials and tribulations, it seems they stumbled badly with their pellet grill by releasing it with many flaws. Then they decided to scrub their website of all the bad reviews and start over.

They also had to acquire software technology and bought a tiny company that was known for making basic wireless thermometers that weren't very good. (When I reviewed the thermometer for my newspaper column and complained that they set the correct temp for steak at 145F, the founder called and berated me, telling me that's what their lawyers required.)

Contrast that with Yoder that went to the best, FireBoard, and integrated some of the best technology available. I love some of the basic Weber products and have owned several. Now own a Weber gas grill that has been very reliable, other than the stainless steel rusting.

[rickgregory]

Their stock is down 60% over the last year, so... this isn't a sudden issue with them. Combined with the change from 2020 and even the spring/summer of 2021 when things were still shaky as far as going out to eat and sure, results are down. But it's not like Weber was flying high and then just crashed.

"One quick look at my 401K, E-trade and Robinhood accounts is enough to depress me about the future of the economy."

The stock market is not the economy. People are talking themselves into recession and it's a little frustrating to see. The media has significant culpability here too. In the US at least, consumer spending is close to 2/3 of the economy and if we all hear negative talk about the economy, we naturally pullback. Which slows the economy. Which... causes the negative to become true.

Obviously, there are underlying issues (Ukraine etc). But inflation isn't caused by a slow economy. The recession risk is overreaction by central banks, combined with some other stuff.

[Uncle Bob]

Your analysis has some accuracy, all markets are driven to varying degree by sentiment. But a significant portion of the consumer spending you note is also driven by credit availability. The contraction of credit, out of necessity because of excessive government induced money supply, is a necessary medicine to attempt to tamp down runaway inflation. Excessive credit was the foundation of the '08 recession, and, as history repeats, we're there again, though the details/mechanisms are different.

[rickgregory]

Uncle Bob - yeah, the sentiment is only part of it and as you note, credit availability is a part too, esp for larger purchases e.g. cars etc. But none of this is about 'que, so I got tired of typing

[pknj]

I would like sentiment to drive boat prices down, but keep the economy going. Where do I suggest that?

[captainlee]

I just read that a few of the RV trailer companies are planning layoffs too. A few boom years then market saturation. Buckle your seat belts, more coming. I think they just raised interest rates again today. Disposable cash is definitely tightening up, the gas stations and grocery stores are definitely putting a hurting on everybody.

[FireMan]

When fuel goes they the roof, RVs always suffer.

[glitchy]

I hope they can weather the storm. My suspicion is two things. Their support took a beating with the pandemic and the SmokeFire release both hitting at same time. I wonder how much staff they added to compensate that now doesn’t have enough work to do? I had wait time over an hour calling in multiple times for SmokeFire support. A few months later got though immediately multiple times.

Second, with the record inflation I’m guessing the sales of more expensive grills is already and still going to fall dramatically.

[rickgregory]

To be more explicit than i was above... I don't believe Weber when they attribute poor sales to inflation. Yes, I'm sure it contributes, but unless they're losing share to others I'd bet most of it is what others have said - most people only want one, MAYBE two grills and sales likely spiked during the pandemic and YOY sales are going to look bad for a bit.

[Jerod Broussard]

1. Things are more expensive
2. People are afraid to spend as much cause of the "looming" recession
3. Peeples got all the grills they really need

Add it all up....

[BBQPhil]

Until it doesn’t. Always an opportunity for innovative products that work well and offer a good value. The latest gas grills from Weber are "smart" by adding a remote thermometer and charging a lot more. Not a good value.

[WillTravelForFood]

hence our comment earlier to maybe enhance equipment by embracing the homebrew hacks and making them easier to implement for the casual BBQer.

"We do enjoy ourselves some charcoal cookery. I could by the BASE kettle, or I could by the HACKER kettle where I could do add-ons from Thermoworks or Fireboard"?

Some people might automatically gravitate to the hacker kettle just for the future option/expandability

[Spinaker]

Maybe the pull back will be pellet rigs go out and the real BBQ continues.

(ONLY KIDDING, PELLET HEADS, ONLY KIDDING)

[Spinaker]

Sure! Not my thing anyway, so I am down!

[Draznnl]

Spinaker shouldn’t you be out on one of your pointless runs?

[Spinaker]

Nah, too late at 1:43 AM, I was fast asleep! Draznnl

[JoeSousa]

I saw Traeger just did a round of layoffs and another outdoor cooking company (Pitboss?) as well. Guessing this is the time of year when the grill companies make business decisions like this?

[BBQandLove]

Could they have pulled off the public stock offering without the bubble?