Cub Cadet....gone

[Hard]

The Lowes store in town had a John Deere Coming Soon banner displayed outside on the front of the store today. I asked the store manager if Lowes was going to stop carrying the Cub Cadet brand lawn and gareden tractors and he said yes they are. He went on to say they (Lowes) was discontinuing the brand because there are having to many problems with the Cub Cadet's.

Too bad MTD could not iron out the problems with Lowes and the tractors that Lowes sells. Deere must be doing something right.

Maybe the upside is MTD builds the cheap tractors for the Yard Machines/White Outdoor/Yardman brands only and really focuses on Cub Cadet as the premium brand as it should be. If not, they are going to cheapen the CC brand even further. IMO the Cub Cadet brand should possibly start at the 3000 series on up. The White as the middle brand and the Yard Machines/Yardman as the value brand.

I wonder if TSC is considering a similar move???

Just my .02

 

[wojnaroski]

Not sure if good or bad. In my past talks with Lowes about Cub tractors, I was not impressed by the Cub/Lowes relationship. From what I could understand, Lowes did not directly service or provide parts for or from Cub.

I was told that problems were shipped out to Cub dealers. Parts were ordered from Cub dealers, not Cub itself. They carry some parts like filters, probably from Cub. But the actual parts needed for repairs came from Cub dealers.

Straight from a Lowes manager.

The down side is less brand visibility.

Alan.

 

[aaabelha]

It's purely a marketing decision.

It is doubtful that the local manager knows why the purchasing/buying group at corporate headquaters pulled the plug.

Lowes wants what the Home Dumpo has; the most recognized name in outdoor power equipment. Average Joe knows the Deere name really well, but I'd bet that only half of them know the Cub brand name. Sadly, for average Joe, they think when they buy Deere at the Dumpo or Lowes they are getting a product that is similar in quality and build as Cub 1000, 1500, Sears/Husqvarna, etc.

Deere 100 series is Deere's budget line, but average Joe thinks high end. Not that they are bad, but they are what they are; entry level for average Joe homeowner to mow an acre.

I was recently at a family event and I happenned to mention to my brother, brother-in law and a few others that I just replaced my failing AYP tractor with a Cub Garden tractor. the response? You spent over 3 grand?-why did you not buy a John Deere? Another: What is a Cub Cadet? Never heard of it.

Deere at Lowes is a marketing driven choice for increased sales and competitive positioning with HD.

What will be interesting is if the Home Dumpo will lose Deere and pickup Cub. ????????

 

[wallace]

This is what I was told by a Deere dealer...
I was told that Lowes had signed a agreement with John Deere that they will be carring the X-series John Deere.
I am not a John Deere dealer and I don't know what to think of that person statement.
The Deere dealer is not a full line dealer the carry very big lawn tractors.
I do not keep up on Deere to tell you much about it but he said within 2 years you will see the very large lawn tractors a lowes.
I think that would be the worst mistake that Deere could ever do.

 

[Hard]

I'm sure it was a marketing decision.

But it was a decision driven customers complaining about all the problems they are having with Cub Cadet equipment. It's tough to market poor quality. The Lowes manager I spoke with said they had a lot of customer complaints of Cub Cadet tractors.

This isn't the fault of Lowes, MTD/Cub Cadet dropped the ball. Cub should have built better machines. If they did, customers would have been happy, Lowes sells more tractors, doesn't drop Cub Cadet therefore no need to partner with JD. It's that simple.

 

[gamble77]

All of you are part right, and part wrong here is what happened...I don't feel like writing a two page report so this is going to short and sweet.

The Lowes/Cub Cadet partnership from day one did not do things like Home Depot/JD has done. JD dealers are allowed to go to Home Depot, set up the JD units, test them out and make sure they are ready to sell. At the Lowes stores they either contract the assembly out or have some of their employees do it (usually 18-20 year old males who have no prior knowledge of mowers).

Lowes tells all of their customers that if their Cub Cadet breaks that a dealer will come out and fix it on site, that was not true and many upon many customers were mad about that. I would say over 80% of all warranty work we have done on Cub Cadets over the past 2 years were set up problems which could have been avoided if one of my guys were allowed to set the machine up.

You know something is wrong when all the warranty work you are doing on Cubs are units from Lowes & TSC, not from the units I sell. Why you ask? Because whoever is selling these things over at Lowes will tell the customer anything to make the sell. They will tell a customer that a 1000 series or an RZT will cut 4-5 acres when we all know that just is not the case. They were not being sold properly at Lowes.

As you can see there are obvious problems with the system as it was set up. Then to add to the fire if a customer complained about a faulty mower which almost always was a set up problem caused by Lowes themselves then Lowes would give the customer a new mower and then blame Cub Cadet on the problems.

Cub will be back in the mass merchant market, maybe not in 2006 but eventually. It makes sense for JD to try to get into Lowes, Lowes is the LARGEST OUTDOOR POWER EQUIPMENT ENTITY IN THE WORLD. They outsell Home Depot something like 5 to 1.

Every 1 out of 2 residentail zero turn mowers sold in 2005 was a Cub Cadet. Cub being in Lowes has helped the brand and getting its name out there, it is just ashamed that the long term success was missed becuase of the smaller details. Just for information purposes we were/are the service center for five Lowes stores and one TSC store.

Hope this helps clear some things out...

 

[NewToy]

I always thought Depot was bigger than Lowes. If that's the case how come Lowes is spanking them so bad in the outdoor power equipment department?

John

 

[gamble77]

Nope, Lowes is the biggest when it comes to OPE

 

[Hard]

Thanks for clearing things up gamble.

Where do you think the Cub brand will retail from in the future besides TSC and the independent dealers?

 

[Maveric]

With everything gained there is something lost. While it is good for Cub Cadet to gain more market share selling their entry level homeowner machines at TSC and Lowes I don't really know that they did themselves any favor. Any product worth while needs to be represented and marketed by capable and knowledgable people and that ain't happenin at Lowes! You don't see Red Wing shoes or Snap On tools at Walmart. I also don't see that it is totaly fair to the GOOD dealers, the dealers that are experienced and can give seasoned advice about which tractor is best, know how to service and repaiar what they sell and are on top of service bullitens and such, dealers that want your business and need you to return so they can survive. I know this is rare in this day and time but one thing for certain you won't find this at Lowes and when it all goes wrong because of improper setup or misreprested produt the guys with the dirty fingernails and skinned knuckles at these dealerships have to deal with uphappy consumers. In my opinion Cub Cadet loses and so does the dealers. Maybe some well thought out advertising to educate the public about Cub Cadet and the different levels of product they offer and encourage that public to visit their local dealer is in order.