Bosch buys Freud

[Tom Walz]

All:

As you know we have been very succesful in growing the Freud
branding structure and business segments significantly over the last
8-10 years and espacially the last 4-5. Despite the times this year
is no exception and many have taken notice. Bosch effective yesterday
did purchase Freud and to be clear anything mention previous to
yesterday afternoon was simply rumor.

We (Freud) will remain a seperate legal entity and the management of
Freud America, Italy and around the world including the owners will
remain intact to continue our strategy and sales structure for the
coming years. Bosch is proud to have such a flagship now to point to
in cutting tools and looks to further grow through integration and
investment each of our segments of the business. We are excited and
will continue to grow our performance to a dominant share among
commercial industrial dealers of which many of you are apart. We will
continue our same strategy and sale structure and look to continue
our growth with significant performance advantages through R&D for
the coming years. All Freud Brands will remain.

I have attached the official press release below from Bosch (you an
find the original at www.bosch.com. If you have any questions for me
please ask and I will let you know what I know or feel free to email
me at gneer@freudtools.com (gneer%40freudtools.com)

To all please have a blessed Christmas and here's to a succesful 2009
for you!

Best regards,
Greg Neer
Director of Technical Sales
Freud America

[John Keeton]

Can you say Wall-E?? Pretty soon, one company (Wal-Mart??) will own the world.

Both good companies, but I just hate to see conglomeration. Big government, big business, big hassle.

But, it is the new world and we best get used to it.

[Don Bullock]

...

But, it is the new world and we best get used to it.

John, I couldn't agree with you more. It will be interesting if Freud will be able to maintain the quality they have produced in the past.

[Curt Harms]

I wonder what will happen with Freud's power tools, however. Sort of like Porter-Cable and DeWalt. Freud routers seem like decent machines-I have an FT2000E which has been fine for me. They do say that the businesses will be run separately so perhaps there'll be no change. That transaction will make Bosch a player in the bit & cutter biz though, won't it?

[Dave Lehnert]

I guess the good news is Bosch purchased them and not Black and Decker or Ryobi.
I can't think of a time when someone sold out and it was good.

A company that makes tools here in town acts like they are struggling. May be another announcement soon. Lets hope not.

[Gary Max]

Heck I am a big Bosch fan so this is good news. As a matter of fact I am needing a new 3x21 belt sander.:)

[Rick Gooden]

Bosch bought Telex (Electrovoice) (a manufacturer of commercial sound equipment that I use regularly in my profession) about a year ago and it has been very good for all concerned. Telex still operates the way it did, maintaining it's excellent quality and adding more products to it's line. I think this has potential of good things down the road.

[Peter Quinn]

FINALLY a business merger in wood working that makes sense to me. Bosch owns the patents to the original Stanley wonder worker routers. They have improved the old stanley routers and make arguably some of the finest routers available. I personably find them very agreeable to use and own several.

Freud makes a full line of tooling for routers, shapers, and table saws. Very high quality stuff. Bosch makes very good portable table saws. Bosch offers a line of router tooling that is not a big player in the USA market but seems well made, its range is limited. For a quality tool maker to partner with a quality blade/cutter maker is an excellent match as far as I am concerned.

I would like to see the Freud brand offer a truly industrial/commercial line up more like the Amana or Whiteside brands do, and possibly differentiate this from the contractor or hobbiest level offerings in some way. Some of the more complex Freud bits like cabinet door sets leave me wanting for a bit more flexibility.

That said I spent the day routing stop dados in teak with an over arm production router, using a 3/4" Freud plunge bit, and brother, it did me right. Perfect clean burn free splinter free dados hundreds of lineal feet total, last cut as good as the first. I can't think of many species of wood much more abrasive than teak. Of course it did make a .745" slot, not a .750 slot, but nobody is perfect!:rolleyes: Luckily I have a wide belt at my disposal to fit the parts to the .745" groove.;)

Seriously thought, this is the type of market integration that could prove very valuable to both the companies involved and us wood workers alike. And it does not dilute competition in the market as the two players are more complimentary than competitive IMO.

[Chuck Tringo]

sounds to me like a bosch router bit clearance in the making :D I have quite a few I got from amazon when the prices dipped and think they are great so who knows :rolleyes:

[Bruce Page]

I only own one Bosch tool, a Bosch Colt VS trim router (I've always been a PC fan) and so far it has been trouble free. I own several Freud TS blades and even more of their router bits and have never been disappointed. Hopefully, this will be a happy marriage and all will prosper, but like John, all of this corporate conglomeration worries me. True, it is a brave new world, but that is not necessarily a good thing.
Time will tell

[Dewey Torres]

Well if Bosch adopts Freud cutter technology and Freud adopts Bosch tool making technology... send Send me a Freud Colt with a slick set of Bosch Quadra cut bits... color the tool and bits Blue and Red and lets make some sawdust!

[Larry Edgerton]

Can you say Wall-E?? Pretty soon, one company (Wal-Mart??) will own the world.

Both good companies, but I just hate to see conglomeration. Big government, big business, big hassle.

But, it is the new world and we best get used to it.

Don't even get me started on WalMart.........

[Bruce Wrenn]

To put it bluntly, Bosch has DEEP POCKETS, very deep pockets. I can't say that Freud was already making some of Bosch's blades, but I have seen some Bosch's that looked like Freud's

[Ed Kilburn]

Look at it this way, another great company saved from the buy and destroy B&D conglomerate. If Bosch didn’t buy them B&D would have, then we would have more junk tools to work with.

[Paul Greathouse]

Sounds like a great move, I have several Bosch tools and they are all high quality. I use Freud blades and have two of their 1700 routers, all great stuff.

I also visited with the Freud rep at a local lumber yard tool show and was very impressed with his presentation, he talked like a woodworker instead of a saleman. Most of the other brand reps were simply salesmen that didn't have a very deep knowledge of their own tools.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Sounds to me like this one actually makes sense. Wonder what Charles's take on it is, off the record of course.

[Daniel Berlin]

Sounds to me like this one actually makes sense. Wonder what Charles's take on it is, off the record of course.

In this day and age, there is no off the record :(

[Denny Rice]

Wal-Mart has ruined the world for the "working class" in this country. I cannot wait to see the workers of the world revolt and demand a decent wage for a decent days work. Its amazing how history is deemed to repeat itself, if you go back in history a 100 yrs ago you will find workers working in sweat shop conditions and this brought on the rise of the unions. I see this happening again it may take 20 yrs but it will happen again.

[Dave Stuve]

I'm a big fan of Freud and Bosch, so I'm hopeful - this doesn't sound like the 'buy a company and fire everyone but keep the brand' type of acquisition that is so common in the US these days.

Dave

[Bill White]

like a merger that makes good business sense. Combine the sales efforts, streamline the product line to eliminate duplication of products and efforts, quality sales and marketing.....
I don't see where anybody looses. Two very strong brands with consumer confidence.
Bill