Thread: Is someone killing Triton ?

As a former employee of Triton, I wholeheartedly agree many of the comments this interesting thread has raised.

Who did kill Triton (and is it dead?)...

George for selling it?....Maybe. It was his drive, and pig headed determination that made it what it was, and steered that ship in the direction it needed to succeed. Is he to blame?...Not completely. He sold what was a progressive, healthy manufacturing business, that had many designs in the pipeline. Maybe he could of been a little more specific (Step 1, Listen to your Customers - Step 2, Listen to your staff, Step 3, Be pro-active...)

Hills Industries...? ...Maybe. The purchased this progresive company, and failed to monopolise on many of the key opportunities. The did manage to finalise or follow through with the release of the 2400W Router. The did follow through with the introduction of many unique Triton designed tools (Plunge Drill, Steel Cutter). They did fail to identify the upcoming end to the life of the WC2000 (which was only a facelift and minor upgrade to the MK3 anyway). They failed to replace George with a dynamic, driven, passionate leader, relying on their former production manager, and they failed to listen to other Triton management in regards to the direction the ship should be steered. In short, Hills did not know what to do with Triton. It needed an investment then, to ensure its future NOW. Hills had one of the bests sale's team's, who really enjoyed the product, and as one previous poster has pointed out, they made great in-roads in both the Big Box, and Independant hardware stores, but Hills look strictly at ROI (Return On Investment), and they werent getting or weren't expecting to get enough to satisfy its shareholders. It was taking a lot of time for Reps to sell and merchandise Triton products in store - a far larger percentage of time then say Clotheslines, Ladders, Sprayers, Wheelbarrows, Laundry Products and Ironing Boards. It had to go!

GMC.....Maybe? As much as it would be easy to say these guys were guilty as charged, we can't point the finger of ultimate blame at them. The purchased Triton in a fire sale, and should of realised it needed a massive cash injection immeditely. The should of listened to the existing Triton R&D and Managemment team, and they should of investigated the industry more for trends and pricing levels (top quality professional machines were available for similar prices by this stage). The were indeed looking for a recognised brand name to sell a better range of tools, but never identified the 'George Factor' in the look, feel and uniquness of these well designed tools (relying on Telecom Gold and Badge engineering). GMC Representation was woeful anyway, merchandising (tidying, cleaning and restocking shelves) was non-existent in most locations, and very quickly sales declined. If you cant see it, you cant sell it! The same can be said of their own GMC products (the rest is history). GMC too failed to monopolise on this great opportunity, although they were in a worse position then Hills at the get-go.

Who do we blame? Buggered if I know! How about a little of each.

Is it dead? I hope not - but if it is, I see a new Triton Project Plan coming up, "Build you own Small/Medium Sized Comapny Coffin".

Dohboy

What saddens me, is it didn't have to happen, but now that road has been taken, I don't see any real opportunities to get it back on the original track.

Stuart, there is the opportunity you have been waiting for , buy it out and improve it.

Might have to be made in China to get price back to entrant level.

If I had a spare $14 mill, then I wouldn't be struggling with my small box of a workshop!

Dohboy made a heap of very valid (and obviously insightful) comments.
I still think a new tablesaw is needed, and perhaps coupled with GMCs new Ebay initiative.

An interesting thread. havent read all the replies, but certainly some common ideas as to what is happening with Triton.

I agree with you Stu, in that a new table saw id required. If you consider where Triton started from, it was the table which allowed a low cost option to DIYers to use a circular saw (which they most likely already had) in a table saw mode.

30 yrs later and with cheaper imports available, people are buying a dedicated table saw, maybe with router option. (i still only have the Triton)

There has been some great ideas come from the triton range - you only have to look at some of the features on the circular saw and routers. Pity they werent around when i bought mine.

Perhaps the solution is for George to buy the company back at rock bottom price and start again

Interesting last sentence, Falcon. Wonder if George looks at this forum. He could do with Triton what Kerry Packer did with Channel 9 ie sell at top dollar then buy it back at fire sale price.

I would like to buy more Triton product (band saw etc) but not without seeing it first. Therefore, I buy non Triton.

I'm with you Geoffo !
No way will I buy anything in machinery etc without touching, feeling it etc.....

Not sure if George would want the stress back though

Originally Posted by geoffo

I would like to buy more Triton product (band saw etc) but not without seeing it first. Therefore, I buy non Triton.

Be interesting to see if there is a Triton stand at the Woodwork shows this year.

The original question asked whether there was intention in the demise of Triton. I would suggest that it may simply be dying a natural death, albeit a slow one.

In Marketing 101 courses it is said products and firms can be viewed as having lifecyles. There is some justification in this. A product and/or firm is born in a particular time with a set of prices/competitors/markets ... most die young but some due to luck, drive, good design etc flourish.

This was probably the case in the early years of Triton.

Drive, creativity and inspiration would seem to be appropriate descriptors for early Triton. In recent years one could argue that these may have been lacking as evidenced by the general lack of innovation. The company would seem to have evolved into nothing more than another machinery company, distinguishable only by the paint colour of its offering.

The brand still has value as evidenced by such things as this very forum. However such value will fade over time without some injection of the spirit that defined the early Triton.

One last question would be whether the innovation and creativity and the freedom that is needed for that to flourish, which i suspect existed in the old Triton, exists in the present company.

I love my table saw, router and saw...just so you know

I do agree that Triton is going downhill,

Customer service from Triton gone down hill from even a year ago, as,
earlier this year i had to contact Triton as i needed the product code for some parts of which i wasn't able to find on there website, i emailed them and they had a indian person reply to me, and i explained what was the parts i wanted, with giving quite good reference to what i didn't want and in the reply it was writtin in a way of which i knew nothing about triton products, was new to there products etc.

with this i do see that Triton has gone downhill a lot.

Also the other year when they stopped producing the Triton times newsletter, after just one year of a new format, and using the website / email etc about new products i have only ever seen like 2 emails about new products etc.

I use triton for there great storage options as i do have limited room to keep my tools.

I do agree that triton has been declining over the last few years. But I
I do disagree that all their products are behind the times.

The fact remains that their routers are still better than anything you can buy in the price-range with significant innovations offered compared to the competition. The baby random orbital sander is a great little sander for the money.

Triton needs a change of management. The policies of GMC are completely contrary to the policies that Triton has followed for years. Triton needs to be managed by people with innovative ideas and the foresight to make changes to take product line into the future.

GMCs policy is to sell lots of mainly crap tools at the cheapest possible price. One thing I came to realise as I got older is that if you pay peanuts you get monkeys! Triton has never been about the cheap product but about offering a good product at a reasonable price and backing that up with great support. Unfortunately the focus is changing as directed I suspect by the new owners.

If Triton disappears it will be unfortunate, the end of another era, but I do not think we can blame George for that. George was a pioneer who achieved a great deal. He has set the standards for the new owners of Triton to follow. The fact that they decided to completely ignore his proven recipe is what will kill the product. Not George.

My 2cents worth.

Marios

Fellow woodworkers and Tritoneers,

It sure is a different environment out there in Hardware compared to when Triton was first born.

Biggest change has beed due to "Globalisation".

I volunteered at the GMC booth in Germany last month where the International Hardware Fair was held.

This was my second visit to this, the world's largest Hardware show. Briefly, the number of companies who are making substantially similar products is beyond beleif.

Bunnings have decided to change tack. Instead of carrying one of every maker, they have decided to accept Ryobi's offer of exclusive ranging, even though a part of the agreement centers on Bunnings discontinuing its ranging of products that are deemed to compete with Ryobi.

Some of the new Triton products that have been designed by the engineers for Triton branding are good. I judge that based on the simple "Would I buy this?". Answer is yes. I think that many of us will be pleased when these products finally hit the shelves.

My business centers around wholesaling Triton in Japan. To sell Triton effectively, I have to invest a lot of effort and money in demonstrations, DVDs, advertorials, web site etc. Compared to the range of plug it in and go tools now available, the price gap is a real barrier.

As many have mentioned, the sustaining advantage of Triton is the balance of cost, performance and compactness in storage. Walking around new estates, the 2 car garage seems to be a 1.5 car garage, in which case, dedicated equipment gets squeezed out.

600 square meter blocks of land also do not lend themselves to the shed out the back that many of us grew up in.

I strongly beleive that the core strength of Triton's early success was George's work on his training videos and in-store display videos. Back then, as Triton was the only readily available DIY tablesaw, most of what we saw was new and inspiring.

There are so many options available now, that few manufacturers are willing to make the investment in customer education, as there is no longer a strong connection between the education and a sale.

Some members of this forum were kind enough to review my Tablesaw DVD. I would love to be able to release this and others in the series as multi-lingual DVDs. In my market (Japan) many customers have come up and said that they have learned quite a bit from it. Given that it really is entry level stuff, indicates the need for this type of resource.

From my perspective, the number of complaints in Japan has reduced, seemingly because of the DVD, as technique is fairly important in determining the quality of the finished product.

My son is now 11 years old. These school holidays, one of his projects was to make a treasure chest, as his class is learning about the sea. Instea of making one out of cardboard, we have been making a box out of some rough sawn silky oak I had. For me, the goal is not the box, it is letting him learn about the band saw, jointer, thicknesser, Triton workcenter, router table and biscuit joiner.

We may not even finish the box in time, however he is now getting a better appreciation of woodwork and what goes into making things.

Teaching your son, and letting him use the equipment is an interesting process. Talk about being a safety Nazi. Triton still is among the safest of the powertools in my shed. (Haven't invested in a saw stop yet)

I think we grow out of Triton, as we do with most activities. Would like to see some of the education and information somehow make its way back into the marketing of the range, as without it, Triton is little more than an orange table. With it, Triton becomes an extension of your lifestyle.

Cheers

Steve

(Obviously still infected with Tritonitis)

I do agree, with the 2 peoples above, Triton do make great tools.

A new management team is what is needed who can steer triton into the future.

Thank you to everyone

When I raised this topic "Is someone killing Triton" back on the 11th March I never for one minute expected such a display of passion and dismay, nor the quantity or quality of discussion. Thanks to everyone who has contributed to my query!

I think the summation by Steve (Triton Japan) was well presented and pertinent to todays climate with power tools and associated equipment.

Indeed, yards and sheds are getting smaller, probably fewer dads (and some mums to be fair) don't get the opportunity to teach their kids the joy of working with wood. This could be from a variety of causes, time, money, they weren't taught ..... the demise of school based woodwork, or simply they have fogotten .. the list is likely long.

I only wish the powers to be at GMC would look at this thread and analyse it. Then they might realise what a great product they have and a product that still has great potential from a business perspective!

They need to heed the comments concerning showing off their ORANGE product identified by so many....
incl: demonstrations, DVDs, advertorials; get people to see the product, feel the product, understand what it can do! Maybe a special on a TV DIY show where TRITON products are the only one used for the many improvements, additions etc they do ???

Who else does (did) instore demos?
Stand out from the mob I say.
Promotion & Education is the key to success

"....the sustaining advantage of Triton is the balance of cost, performance and compactness in storage....."

My stable of Triton products continues to grow.... I have faith in its quality and reliability.... that hopefully it will outlast this old bloke.

So thanks again everyone..... I'm sticking with it for all the right reasons in my opinion..... it does what I need it to do and then some.... and I can always put any bit in my wagon, on my own!, and go and help a mate if needed.....

Glenn