Interesting article indeed. It was interesting to see that Bassoul felt blindsided, I had thought he went into it knowing it would be a project.

Middleby is going crazy with the acquisitions. I really do think them buying Viking is going to lead to improved quality. However, I don't think it's going to lead to good things for Greenwood, because it's going to involve tapping into engineering and/or manufacturing manpower from other parts of the Middleby empire, both on the commercial side, and with the other residential brands they're buying. This is probably why Carl was reluctant to let his company go.

Reading the article about cooking a turkey, sounds to me like they are going to attempt to put the turbo chef oven into a range. A very complicated machine that failed in the residential market a few years ago. The article talks about making the ranges simpler / less complicated seems to me that adding such an oven is a little bit contradictory.

When I spoke to Selim at the AD show about the "Range Safe Knobs" all he was interested in was dramatically cutting cost raising the price of Viking appliances beyond what the brand can withstand. Further introducing technologies to the line which could lead to many more problems in the future not less.

Hopefully I am wrong it would be a shame to see the Viking name slip further into the mire. Wolf and Thermador are so far ahead of Viking in sales these days, its going to be a very long road back to the old days.

Having said that I do wish him well he is clearly an excellent CEO to grow Middleby so fast. He clearly has a war chest beyond that of most is not all other appliance manufactures in the US if anyone can do it Middleby can.

Thanks, Gooster!

Trevor, to be fair, TurboChef didn't "fail" because of complexity so much as price. After the initial push, during which those who got them loved them dearly, other speed ovens--lesser ones but far less expensive--came in to steal its thunder. It was a high quality appliance.

You're right, though. Who's going to want a TurboChef in a Viking range if the Viking range isn't already a good range?

I didn't see anything about putting the TC oven in a range. By "A $16,000 Viking oven due for release next year can cook a 12-pound turkey in 42 minutes" I figured they were just talking about the Viking TC wall oven coming out next year and got the price wrong. In reality it looks to be more like $12-13K.

There was this: "Viking also has simplified the wiring of its ranges, cut the number of parts and made them easier to assemble to reduce the risk of defects". However, I interpreted that as streamlining the engineering and manufacturing, not necessarily making simpler products.

plllog... Good points, I think adding a turbo chef style oven to a viking will also be to expensive and in my opinion very risky.

hvtech42.... Middleby owns Turbo Chef so it stands to reason they will use that technology to produce an oven that can cook a turkey in 42 minutes. When I was speaking to Salim and reading the statement you attached above I interoperated my conversation and the statement to mean save money and charge more.

I don't sell any of the big 3 (Wolf Viking or Thermador) so it matters not to me what any of them do. I just don't see Viking coming back even close to what they were.

As always just an opinion.

I'm thinking the first step to fixing a problem is admitting you have a problem, and so I think the CEO may at least recognize that the dealers and consumers (and class action lawsuits) have spoken loudly about the quality. We'll see if they are able to enact change.

Of course quality/reliability comes first but raising prices is the wrong move for Viking. Their brand is definitely weaker than Wolf at this point, and probably on par with Thermidor (more recognized than Thermador, but also more terror stories all over the internet). They need to be at or below the price point of Thermador (after rebates) in order to improve their sales.

My musings on this are that the Viking board and not Mr. Carl decided to sell the co. He hasn't controlled that co. since the last shakeup down their. Quality has been a problem for a decade over there and Selim's challenge is going to be to change the culture , not only internally but in the marketplace.

Any second year b- school student can manage to string together an acquisition binge , you just identify targets, and keep feeding the machine . Cut costs at the acquired operations and make a bunch of speeches about win win and synergies bla bla before laying off half the workforce and closing or moving offices and factories to municipalities that are willing to be whores with their tax base to attract said companies. This dresses up the balance sheet and adds mass to growing endeavor for the next acquisition.

But........at some point the costs are all cut, maybe you've managed to keep morale intact, and you have to increase sales to justify the 10,000 pound gorilla and earn a real profit . It usually implodes at that point.

"becoming the leading high-end appliance [maker] in the world," is nothing more than P T Barnum puffery. If he actually believes that, then the operation is doomed out of hubris. They may get there , but Viking plus AGA and LaCornue and a second place ice machine co. don't make the worlds leading appliance company, sorry. AGA potential for growth is pretty minuscule as is LaCornue's especially at the volumes needed to impress Wall Street analysts. The only hedge I'll make to this is China. They might be able to flog enough ranges over there to justify the Street's appetite, but domestically they are a third place player at best, and probably fourth or fifth realistically is their ceiling.

Technology is great , and the hot button for business building right now, but at the end of the day you have to deliver a product people want to buy in numbers that allow you to earn a profit. That product has to work consistently and last. New tech by itself has to work consistently and easily for the masses. Vapor Ware can be spectacular in a PowerPoint pres. , but if it doesn't work for 20% of DesMoines' population it's not commercial success. HP had a smartphone with color graphics , email, ect... long before anyone saw an iPhone. Does any one remember it ? Nope, the user experience sucked and it was forgotten. Gee Wiz technology way ahead of its time though.

Being publicly traded isn't going to help long term either. Market leader Miele, and SubZero are closely held family run companies that can be a lot more nimble addressing market needs, and despite having spent over half a billion dollars I think Middleby's pockets are still a bit smaller than BSH and Electrolux's whose operations are truly global in scale.

The smart kids over at GE want out of the appliance business, and they are colossal division in terms of appliance market share. What does that tell you about big appliance companies? You think it was because they couldn't find anyone talented enough to squeeze a profit out of selling fridges and stoves ? And they don't even have the handicap of a poor quality issue .

I wish them luck, but a super fast stove wrapped up in pretty Viking wrapper isn't a horse I would back. Nor is that space shuttle technology collecting dust in the back warehouse at Viking - TMIO, another way ahead of its time cooking" technology "that had a crappy user experience , quality issues , and generally didn't deliver value for its lofty price.

The upscale appliance market is pretty fickle and competition much stiffer than when Mr. Carl started the residential pro range category decades ago.

Canvassing dealers would have worked too.

For sure xedos. It's not like word wasn't out there in the pits and customers kitchens about lack of Viking appliance QA.

I also found it surprising as well that Middleby was not aware of the level of quality issues with Viking appliances. The CEO said they did more due diligence when purchasing AGA and there was more information available because it is a public company. The article suggests Middleby may have paid too much for Viking considering the high level of quality issues. Interesting!

I don't know what the actuality is. The way I interpreted it, they knew that the problems were there (i.e., did the basic web search/repair surveys) but they didn't realize the absolute depth of the issue. Turnaround specialists can make a difference in a lot of factories in a remarkably short period of time, when the issues are purely quality control. When the outside components and raw materials are inferior, and the workforce is entrenched and hard to improve or replace, when the factory itself is part of the problem, and when there are significant engineering errors on the product design, it's not the kind of thing that a cheerleader, a pay bump and a company picnic can fix. These examples are meant to be illustrative only. I don't know what the actual issues are that cause the oven doors to fall off or anything, or what Middlebury's tactics are. But you couldn't pay me to have Viking appliances. Or...I suppose I'd do it for eight figures. I might even do it for less, but it would take a lot more convincing with less money. :)