I am not going to enter into a dialog over which web site told which story. Let’s look at facts and business probabilities.
Business probability number one goes back much further than the 3 1/2 years Aristo-Craft has been out of business. Most businesses like Aristo, toward the end will run orders up and massive credit. This was evidenced in my opinion by the way Aristo announced new product, then never delivered. I will leave out my personal experiences. For the last 6-9 months of Aristo’s existence as a company, they emphatically denied there was any trouble, yet anyone with business sense could see the writing on the wall.
Next, they tried to salvage the Crewst Electronics line, however I believe the damage to reputation was already done and folks went elsewhere. followed by an attempt to raise funds with pre-orders on small scale equipment. Finally Crest Electronics closed as well.
Now to the Aristo-Craft name. Louis Polk owns the Aristo-Craft name. Scott Polk may have the same last name as Louis,but he has no rights to or ownership of the Aristo-Craft name.
Now to product. In the injection molding industry the die life works like this. The company, in this case Aristo-Craft will contract with a manufacturer, in this case Kader, to make a product. Aristo will purchase and pay for the original set of molds/dies because the molding/die company is not going to assume the risk of success of the product. If the product fails, the contracting company, Aristo, is out the cost of the dies. If the product succeeds, when the dies have reached the end of their productive life the molding company will contact the contracting company and determine whether the original owner, Aristo, wishes to pay for the next set of dies or not. Usually, due to the cost, an agreement will be reached between the company and the molder where the molder pays for the dies and ups his per piece charge for the item (passed on to us), and takes possession of the ownership of the dies. As long as the company continues to order pieces, the manufacturer will continue to make parts.
In this case, Aristo-Craft is no longer a business entity, and most likely has not owned the dies for a considerable time. Kader, who owns the dies has the legal right to make thier money back on their investment in the dies…so long as they are not sold unter the Aristo-Craft name. Even though Aristo no longer exists I believe there is a time frame attached to the copyright of the name.
And everyone needs to remember, China does not have to abide by U.S. law.
Personally, I am surprised Kader has not tested the waters with more than the Eggliners, althoug that would be a very low risk item. Remeber, Kader has all the market information on all the items they produced for Aristo, so they know the turn around on investment. I do believe that a quality redesign of the motor blocks as parts would make a good ROI.
Greg, I don’t believe we are entering an era of consolidation, I believe we are entering an era of much smaller ‘disposable incomes’ which will shrink all hobbies, not just ours. Ours will feel the shrink more because we are a smaller segment of an already shrinking hobby. I believe we are headed backward if you want to call it that, to a time when the smaller ‘garage manufacturer’ was king. I think Mark Dash…(can’t remember his last name) is a perfect example of that. The GAL Line is another.
My closing commnet will be that we, the model railroader, must bear partial responsibility for the Chinese controlling so much of our product line, not only in the hobby, but in general. We the cnsumre have for decades had the montra “We want more and want to pay less”. I am sure most on this site can add and subtract…