Stihl's sales cut through economic turbulence

VIRGINIA BEACH

Unlike most of its power-tool competitors, Stihl Inc. enjoyed a slight increase in sales during the first quarter of the year, a top executive said Wednesday.

The power-tool market suffered a 22 percent decline in sales in the first quarter, said Peter Burton, vice president for sales and marketing for Stihl, which has its U.S. headquarters in Virginia Beach.

Stihl, by contrast, experienced a 3 percent increase, Burton said. The privately held company declined to release dollar figures but said sales have grown for at least the past 15 consecutive years.

"The DIY (do-it-yourself) market is still very big," Burton said. Although the economic downturn has crimped business in some ways, in others it might help Stihl, he said. With less money to spend, consumers might be pickier with their purchases.

Stihl products, such as lawn mowers and chain saws, tend to cost more than their competitors' items, but the company has burnished a reputation for top quality and conscientious service. Stihl items are not available online or in big-box stores such as Home Depot, but only at 8,000 independent dealers nationwide.

Burton was interviewed during a break at a Stihl marketing conference at the Virginia Beach Convention Center. The conference drew about 200 people from a dozen distributors - the middlemen between the company and its dealers.

Sam Jordan is the branch manager for Mid-Atlantic Stihl, a distributor that covers six states, including Virginia and North Carolina. First-quarter sales were "a little bit behind last year," he said, but they have bounced back since then.

The first-quarter dip, Jordan said, might have had more to do with the weather than the economy. With last year's drought, dealers accumulated backlogs in equipment, so they needed to buy less this year.

"When the grass doesn't grow, people don't buy trimmers or lawn mowers," said Jordan, who is based in Hillsborough, N.C.

Rick Bryan, based outside Cincinnati, runs the distributor for six states from West Virginia to Michigan. He said the only that have seen significant lags in sales are concrete saws; he attributed that to the slowdown in the housing market.

The Stihl conference was aimed at touting new upgrades to equipment, such as reducing emissions and making products easier to start, as well as sharing new marketing strategies.

The company continues to take out full-page ads in local and national newspapers including USA Today and The Wall Street Journal, said Burton, the vice president. Its new initiatives include a text-messaging system, launched in March, to relay product updates and safety tips to dealers, professional users and consumers.

The conference also featured a couple of celebrity Stihl supporters - gardening guru P. Allen Smith and sometime Rolling Stones keyboardist Chuck Leavell.

Smith, who regularly appears on PBS and the "Today" show, said he's a fourth-generation gardener whose family has used Stihl products for years.

"It's professional-grade, but it's consumer-friendly," Smith said in an interview. "When it comes to machinery, I need help. I want something that's easy to turn on."

Philip Walzer, (757) 222-3864, phil.walzer@pilotonline.com