Production Numbers?

[Guest Ghostrider]

I was curious if anybody had any idea of snowboard company production numbers.

How many boards do some of the "boutique companies" crank out each year? (Prior, Donek, Coiler, Madd)

How many boards do the big companies crank out? (F2, Volkl, Nidecker, Hot )

Just a rough number would be great to satisfy my curiosity. No need to publish the whole sales record, just an idea.

[www.oldsnowboards.com]

Ghostrider, occasionally the numbers come out in trade mags or perhaps company statements. I have found that companies are pretty tight lipped about production numbers. Those from the early years are of particular interest to me. However few are ever "given up". I believe that some companies have lost track or honestly don't know (early companies, many of which have long closed their doors) If you find a good source , please let me know. Another item of interest is un-crypting serial number systems. Some are obvious , many are not. They can hold clues as to how many were made. One must understand the manufacturers point of view when asking. They may have good reason for not disclosing the numbers. Just a thought. Bryan

[crucible]

The reason that the manufacturers are tight lipped about their snowboard production numbers is that it is a vital piece of business intelligence.

This number gives you a rough idea about their sales, and equally important, an idea about where and how their boards are being made.

In a consolidating marketplace, this is all useful information to the competition.

George

[www.oldsnowboards.com]

Hey George, makes sense to me! Thanks for "Business Smarts" view. Looks like you are a big time Winterstick fan! Nice!

Baker , a two foot day and a WS swallow! Sounds like a plan!

[crucible]

To elaborate on the where and how on snowboard production:

Once you've gotten a handle on the amount of boards produced, this narrows your guesses on which OEM factory it came from, or if they make them in-house, then what percentage of their production is dedicated to specific categories of product.

Board production is a timed batch series affair, and the production run times are easily calculated. Once you get a sense of how a board is laid up, and then figure how many production staff are involved in making it, you cross reference and confirm their production quantity statements in VERY GENERAL terms.

At least, that's how I used to crystal ball it when i worked in the industry.

YMMV.

George

[nils]

most european manufacturers, such as atomic, blizzard etc manufacture for much smaller companies, and it is hard to say how big is a company when they make their boards with Blizzard unless you know people there.... I'd say ski/snowboard companies are small size when they are below the 500 mark. Between 500 and 5000 they are mid-size and above they are big :).

But as always, selling 2000 skis at 1000 USD each pair or 8000 at 300 USD is not the same business!

Nils