"Leon"
Perhaps the increasing number of competitive businesses and bench top
tools offered by the name big name brands.
Car dealerships went through this also in the 70's and 80's. You cant
sell only 1 or 2 brands. If you want 40% of the potential market you need
to offer 40 % of the brands offering big equipment. IIRC Woodcraft offers
Jet, Powermatic, and Delta and those certainly are a good mix but there is
also, Craftsman, OneWay, Nova, Grizzly, Rikon, DeWalt, B&D, Hitachi,
Makita, Laguna, MiniMax which all offer some competitive products in their
respective markets. Then add in house brands.

Were still at it. Our group has 7 franchise lines. 3 Domestic 4 Imports.
The woodworking market, I believe, can stand more products as long as they
offer something the others don't.
I think of the drum sander line. Performax seems to be the dominate brand
and for good reason. I would think at least one of the other manufacturers
would be able to come up with a better product yet still remain competitive.

Dave