Grohmann loses military contract

[Grant Lamontagne]

Stabbed in the back
Pictou firm loses military contract to Chinese copies
By MONICA GRAHAM
Wed. Sep 17 - 1:54 PM

PICTOU — It’s bad enough that a company in the defence minister’s home riding of Central Nova has lost a contract to supply knives to Canadian Forces paratroopers.

But to add insult to injury, some people who now have the knock-off knives have been calling Grohmann Knives Ltd. in Pictou to complain about their quality, said company co-owner Michelle Jamieson.


"It’s poor workmanship, it’s terrible, it’s crappy," Ms. Jamieson quoted the callers as saying.

She said the callers are also concerned about whether the knives are safe. But neither Ms. Jamieson nor the company’s co-owner, Mike Babinec Jr., who is also her father, have seen the knock-offs.

"We’ve been told it looks very similar to our knife," she said.

Ms. Jamieson said Grohmann has put a disclaimer on its website in response to the complaints.

She said she has been told the knock-off has the word valour stamped on it and it is labelled Made in China.

The No. 3 model of the D.H. Russell belt knife, designed by Deane Russell and Rudolph Grohmann in the 1950s, was supplied to the Canadian Armed Forces from 1964 to 2006.

It was issued to paratroopers, who used it for cutting their parachute harnesses during dangerous landings in water or when they became entangled.

Two years ago, Ottawa opted to buy army-issue knives from Gear Up Motors, which offered to supply 2,400 knives at a cost of $40 each.

Stanley Pioro of Richmond, Ont., owns the company.

Any national bid on a contract worth about $100,000 or more must go to tender, and Mr. Pioro was able to offer a comparable product for a lower price, Defence Minister Peter MacKay said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

The Armed Forces has received no complaints about the Pioro knife, Mr. MacKay said.

"Surely someone isn’t suggesting that I rig the procurement process in favour of a local contractor," the defence minister said, insisting that he would not do that.

Mr. MacKay said he has not seen the Pioro knife and did not know where it was made, but he owns a Grohmann-made Russell belt knife himself and frequently buys them as gifts.

The knife, made of German steel, retails for about $90, but Grohmann offered a significant discount for buying in bulk, Ms. Jamieson said.

The company supplied up to 6,000 knives a year to the Canadian Armed Forces over the last few decades. It continues to fill smaller orders for the Canadian Coast Guard and other military branches.

Mr. Babinec spoke with Mr. MacKay and Gen. Rick Hillier about the issue when they toured the Water Street factory in June. But Ms. Jamieson said company officials didn’t receive a reply until Mr. MacKay contacted Mr. Babinec on Tuesday to describe the procurement process.

Meanwhile, his father, Mike Babinec Sr., again mentioned the problem during a factory tour earlier this week by Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, who is opposing Mr. MacKay for the Central Nova seat.

Ms. May said she was shocked that the government had ignored Grohmann’s reputation for quality and reliability and awarded the contract based solely on cost.

"My next thought was what kind of other shoddy non-Canadian goods are being purchased for our soldiers in cost-cutting measures?" Ms. May said in a news release Tuesday.

She said there appears to be a bias against contract bids submitted from Atlantic Canada. Ms. May noted that a submarine retrofit contract also went to British Columbia.

Grohmann has not followed up on copyright or patent infringement issues, Ms. Jamieson said.

She said she is upset that someone could make cheaper knock-offs of the company’s knives and then sell them to one of the firm’s major clients.

"It was designed by Canadians for Canadians," she said.

Ms. Jamieson said she would like to see steps taken to help Canadian manufacturers win contracts like the one her company lost.

Such measures would ensure that local people keep their jobs and that the government receives quality products, she said.

"We have a quality product," Ms. Jamieson said.

Mr. MacKay said he always supports local industry, but many Canadian products have components from China.

Grohmann was founded by Ms. Jamieson’s great-grandfather in 1961.

Rudolph Grohmann went to Pictou from a German area of Czechoslovakia in 1949 to work at a cutlery company.

When it folded, Mr. Grohmann started making knives in his garage, winning international awards in the ensuing years. The company employs about 25 people who make outdoor, kitchen and specialty knives.

( mgraham@herald.ca)

Original Story

See what happens when I leave the country for a few days?  The whole place goes straight to hell....

Def

[Tarrodemierda]

yay!  horay for free capitalism and imported knoc-off crap.

[Grant Lamontagne]

I just hope that it's at least slightly better than this Victorinox copy that was posted in SOSAK:



Def

[Dtrain]

For those who are open to free trade please forgive me. I think that something like this is pathetic. I know that rules are rules, but why change suppliers? That is so stupid! I am no paratrooper or Spec-Op Operator or anything like that. I was your plain old genuine issue Supply SpeSmurfpillst.

But it would seem to me if a particulair piece of equipment has given yoeman service over the years at a reasonable cost and it was manufactured in the counrty of use, then why change.

All doing something like that does is alienate the public against purchasing practices of the government in question.

Governments preach buy "Insert Country" here, but do they Practice it?

Dtrain

"Sorry for my Rant but stuff like this really PO"s me"

[Tarrodemierda]

unbreakeble blades,WOW-SER!!!

[Grant Lamontagne]

I can understand saving money, and I can understand updating equipment, but I really wish they'd at least tested some of the samples from the other supplier first.  I am going to try and get my hands on one eventually and test them side by side myself.  Hell, if they really wanted to save money, I'd rather they buy a crapload of the Cold Steel knockoffs- at least they'd be decent quality, and actually cheaper than the knockoffs they are getting now.

Def

[Tarrodemierda]

thats just like our army did some years ago,ty stopped buying finnish Sako-Valmet rk62 7,62 assault rifles and bought s-hitloads of these crappy plastic-stocked junk-norinco ak-47/74 copies.finnish employees were in fear of losing  jobs etc.and those norincos are so poor,atleast compared to ak´s with billet-frames and wood stocks.

[Grant Lamontagne]

What I wonder is, where the hell is all the money going?  Taxes are going up, spending is down... where is the surplus?

Def

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

That really is disgusting, how anyone can send there own people into harms way with knock off, substandard equipment is beyond me

[jock1]

That really is disgusting, how anyone can send there own people into harms way with knock off, substandard equipment is beyond me

We've been doing it in this country for years .It seems people are cheaper to replace than kit

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

That really is disgusting, how anyone can send there own people into harms way with knock off, substandard equipment is beyond me

We've been doing it in this country for years .It seems people are cheaper to replace than kit

Sadly your not wrong

[kent ct]

Because the knives will be made to a military specification and inspected, they probably will be just as good as the originals. Many companies have quality products or parts made in China.

Economists are pretty much agreed that things should be made where costs are least. Other areas should concentrate on what they do best, and everybody prospers. There was probably lots of grumbling when the Sheffield and Solingen cutlers drove other smaller cutlers out of business in their respective countries. I know that The English watchmakers were badly hurt by the influx of cheaper better American watches. But this was the result of better technology, something that used to be kept at home.

It seem like what the Western countries do best today is shuffle paper and manipulate money.

Where all this will lead I do not know, but what alarms me is that I don't think anyone else does either.

Richard

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

Because the knives will be made to a military specification and inspected, they probably will be just as good as the originals. Many companies have quality products or parts made in China.

Economists are pretty much agreed that things should be made where costs are least. Other areas should concentrate on what they do best, and everybody prospers. There was probably lots of grumbling when the Sheffield and Solingen cutlers drove other smaller cutlers out of business in their respective countries. I know that The English watchmakers were badly hurt by the influx of cheaper better American watches. But this was the result of better technology, something that used to be kept at home.

It seem like what the Western countries do best today is shuffle paper and manipulate money.

Where all this will lead I do not know, but what alarms me is that I don't think anyone else does either.

Richard

All very good point's and I'm more than a little concerned at where it's all going to end too

[NutSAK]

Yes, very well said Richard. 

[Tarrodemierda]

Because the knives will be made to a military specification and inspected, they probably will be just as good as the originals. Many companies have quality products or parts made in China.

Economists are pretty much agreed that things should be made where costs are least. Other areas should concentrate on what they do best, and everybody prospers. There was probably lots of grumbling when the Sheffield and Solingen cutlers drove other smaller cutlers out of business in their respective countries. I know that The English watchmakers were badly hurt by the influx of cheaper better American watches. But this was the result of better technology, something that used to be kept at home.

It seem like what the Western countries do best today is shuffle paper and manipulate money.

Where all this will lead I do not know, but what alarms me is that I don't think anyone else does either.

Richard

you said it indeed:

"It seem like what the Western countries do best today is shuffle paper and manipulate money.

Where all this will lead I do not know, but what alarms me is that I don't think anyone else does either."

 

[DaveK]

Well said Richard.

Where it's made is irrelevant, it how it's made that counts. The reality is that in the future, more and more things will be manufactured in China, India and other countries where the expertise is growing, but the labour remains cheap. It doesn't automatically follow that it will be rubbish - far from it. We already have Chinese brands that are accepted as high quality suppliers (e.g. Fenix) and this will become more common place.

When I was young, "Made in Japan" suggested cheap and pretty poor quality goods. Now, particularly in electronics, Japan is a, if not the leader. Think Nikon, Sony and Mitsubishi, or of you like - Nakamichi etc.

Having said that, the article that Def has put up seems to suggest that the quality of these particular knives isn't great. That doesn't sound like a brilliant strategy for the Canadian military....

[I'm Still Bison]

 If a nation that has any kind of industrial base,it should utilize that base to equip it's military.It's a dangerous thing  for a nation to allow it's armed forces to become reliant on foreign made equipment,be it knives,firearms aircraft,toilets ,etc.If Nation A equips it military with arms from Nation B,and Nation B gets a wild hair and cuts off Nation A from spares and parts,Nation A is really up the creek.

[MultiMat]

I think western nations are becoming  consumers as opposed to manufactures , mainly due to lower labor costs in the developing world. In Australia we are making less & less , the Australian car manufacturing industry is dying. Australia is becoming worryingly dependent on its natural resources ,Coal , steel & uranium which will eventually run out . It worries me for my boys future that we as a nation may not have a manufacturing structure .

[kent ct]

If a nation that has any kind of industrial base,it should utilize that base to equip it's military.It's a dangerous thing  for a nation to allow it's armed forces to become reliant on foreign made equipment,be it knives,firearms aircraft,toilets ,etc.If Nation A equips it military with arms from Nation B,and Nation B gets a wild hair and cuts off Nation A from spares and parts,Nation A is really up the creek.

Our soldiers will still have weapons but might have to go bare ass.

Richard