Friday, April 08, 2011

Who IS this John Galt guy?!!!

And why has he taken away my hockey sticks?!!!


Sher-Wood Hockey Inc., Canada's storied hockey stick manufacturer, is leaving home ice for good at the end of this year, moving the last of its stick production to China to slash costs.
 
Yes my friends, from here on out the national sport of Canada will be played with sticks imported from CHINA. Why, you ask?

 Mr. Rodrigue would not provide details of how much lower costs are in China, but he said there are other competitive advantages as well, such as the potential to develop new products in the region.

He cited competition from larger, more aggressive rivals in the consolidating hockey equipment industry as a key factor in the company's shift to Asia, which followed the lead of all the major players, including top dog Bauer Performance Sports Ltd. and rivals Easton and Reebok.

Sher-Wood's dwindling wooden-stick manufacturing was outsourced five years ago to a local company.

In other words, they nearly went bankrupt from trying to stay in Sherbrooke PQ, and if they don't get the hell out of Canada there won't be a Sher-Wood Hockey Inc. by this time next year.  The competitive advantage is unbeatable. A 60 year old Canadian company has to start making hockey equipment in China, a country where nobody ever heard of hockey, that has to IMPORT all the raw materials from halfway around the world, and then ship the finished product back half way around the world, if they want to stay in business.

Question for Count Iggula, Smilin' Jack Layton, RinTin Lizzy and the frickin' Separatiste Bloc-head guy who ought to be all over this: What kind of of bullshit is this, that I can't buy a f-ing HOCKEY STICK that's made in Canada?

The Phantom

3 comments:

Candace said...

That is pretty sad.

Alyric said...

I confess to being a bit ignorant when it comes to Canadian regulations regarding businesses and manufacturing (being an American myself), but here in the U.S., the liberal rationale seems to be "put as many regulations and barriers to manufacturing as possible to drive everything out of business and save the environment".

Of course, that generally only succeeds in driving most of them out of the country, usually to China - where they go on to become far greater polluters than they ever were here in our country. The consequence of moving from reasonable to overbearing regulations. I suspect you've probably seen and/or heard of the environmental nightmares in China - lakes of toxic waste, cities you can't breathe in without masks, etc.

But hey, out of sight, out of mind, right?

On a related note, I really wish we could just round up the enviro-nazi Luddites and dump them somewhere - say Montana - to live their dream utopia: life in huts without electricity, running water, modern medicine or dentistry.

I'd give most of them between 24 and 72 hours before changing their worldview.

The Phantom said...

Hi guys. You know what's sad? You can't buy a made in America hockey stick either.

Imagine, a Quebec company can't make a go of it, even with all the gimmies they get from the federal and provincial government. Imagine trying to make it in Ontario.

How fortuitous there's an ELECTION on right now, eh?