Chad T. Vincent

Background

I joined Gerber in 2001 as company president reporting to the CEO of Fiskars.  Gerber was not in good shape.  With annual sales around $40 Million, which had been declining at a 25% per year clip the past few years, it was barely breaking even.  The roof leaked (a problem if you know the Portland weather patterns), the place was in general disrepair, and there was clearly no path to growth.

Gerber Legendary Blades was founded in 1939, and produced knives and multi tools for Do IT Yourselfers, Hunters, and Outdoorsmen.  We manufactured everything in-house with a team of 300, with a union shop.  Gerber was respected in the industry for making a good product, but the company was virtually an unknown entity, with decent distribution in the sporting goods and independent channels.

It was clear there was no vision here.  Driven by 'knife engineers', the existing plan was to grow 1-2% by creating a sharper and more rust resistant knife product each year.

With minimal funding available, we set out to get a grip on the category and business.  In the first months we interviewed internal team members, customers, writers, spent time in stores loitering around the knife sets at sporting goods stores across the country, and talking with any customer that would engage us for a few minutes.  We dug deep on any and all secondary (free) research and in the end we realized a few key findings.  From a product side, we were barking up the wrong tree. Sharpness and durability were givens... to the core of the market, knives were cool toys for men.  I likened knives to shoes for women... knife owners who owned more than one averaged more than a dozen.  It was a fashion business!  The second finding was that (shockingly!) this was a pretty unsophisticated industry, with competition comprised of family owned organizations that knew and loved making knives.  By bringing value and insights to the customer (retailer), we could change the game.  In this same light, we realized that with a bit of talent and an organization that could move quickly and change, significant growth was ready to be had.

Team and culture

A blend of existing and new folks came together. A driven and hard working crew - we had only a few critical rules.  Folks on the leadership team were expected to engage, and speak their minds, and ask the hard questions.  At our weekly meetings, the discussions were often intense - and very loud. In the end, everyone had a chance to be heard and to form the direction, and once direction was determined - everyone and their teams - was running fast in the same direction.  This business was fun, we treated people with respect, and gave folks opportunities for growth and advancement.  The way we 'played' was vital in the growth trajectory.

Distribution growth through partnering was the second leg of the barstool.  With a very strong VP of sales, we tied sales and marketing at the hip with marketing providing category management skills, and clear stories, and we tripled our investment in talented sales professionals who could sell on facts and develop partnerships.  We soon became the category manager at multiple accounts, including Wal-Mart where we ended up being named supplier of the quarter in 3 of 7 quarters, and supplier of the year for sporting goods.

NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AND SOURCING

The final leg was new product development and sourcing.  With the insight that design was a driver, we created a new position leading product development and hired from within getting a leg up with a talented guy who knew engineering, manufacturing and design.  With tooling costs a major factor, we began developing production partners in Taiwan and in 6 months we had a dozen fresh products to bring to market.  With another 30+ products every 6 months we overwhelmed the competition and our sales exploded.  30 consecutive months of record sales and profitability.  Of note, while we began sourcing, we also were able to maintain and grow our US production as well, keeping and growing our Portland manufacturing team!

One of the most interesting transformations came in conversations with the leadership team and team members around growth.  One of my first questions was 'what would it take for us to be a $250M company'?  For a $40M organization that had lost half its business in the past 2 years, this seemed to be an idiotic question... but soon realized that when we stepped back, the question made us all look at the business in a totally different light.  No more small / incremental 1-2% ideas were put forth.  It opened up new product lines, and entirely new categories.  We put more focus on Military, on new categories like Lighting and Hydration, and licensing.  In my opinion, one of the most difficult things to do is to try and grow 1%.  Aim Higher.