On 2008-04-09 20:04:30 +0100, Jeff said:

On Wed, 9 Apr 2008 18:55:07 +0100, Andy Hall
wrote:

Ryobi drills

They are a mediochre brand manufactured by Tecthtronics International,
a Chinese company. Ryobi is better than their Power Devil and AEG
brands but not as good as Milwaukee which they also make.

Must be a bit of crossover in products now as we ordered a Milwaukee
core drill but it arrived as an AEG (Identical unit).

So a playing around with product volumes and positioning.

When Milwaukee was manufactured in the U.S. it was one of a small
number of quality and rugged tools for contractors.

Since Atlas Copco sold them to TTI in 2005 amid a lot of hype about
improving market share for Milwaukee, very little has been said about
that.

In TTI's interim annual report for 2007 they admit that their power
equipment business has declined by nearly 6% (which is a great deal in
the business) yet represents nearly 70% of TTI's revenue. They go on
to talk about the Ryobi brand and One+ system. That really is a yawn
because other manufacturers have been using this concept for years.

In other words, there is a range consolidation exercise going on.

More interestingly, they spend a great deal of time talking about their
acquisition of Hoover.

Finally, they announced what amounts to a corporate restructuring and
appointment of a new CEO in January. hardly surprising when their
stock price has halved in the last year.



I have looked at and handled Ryobi drills. They do not feel solid
and precise and the mechanisms seem quite clunky.

Makita or Bosch would be much better choices in terms of build quality
and usability.

Makita yes and Blue Bosch definately.

I still have a 7.2v Makita drill, bought oh, must be 20 years ago now
(long slim battery that slid up inside the handle like a pistol
magazine) and it is still going strong and the original batteries
still give 1/2 an hour drilling (NiCd's). Very useful for tight
spaces.