NEWS RELEASE - 3M to Acquire Meguiar's, Inc.

[Bert31]

Re: NEWS RELEASE - 3M to Acquire Meguiar's, Inc.

Um, that company in Tennessee is Meguiar’s. Meguiar’s business headquarters in California. Meguiar’s production facility is in Tennessee.

Oh. I just assumed that the Mirror Glaze Franchisee near me who has sold Meguiars for 25 years and personally knows Barry Meguiar knows what he is talking about when he said it was outsourced to a third party blender in Tenn. Oh well.

I must admit I don't see how it is possible for 115 people to design, produce, sell, provide customer support, and provide administrative corporate duties to a company the size of Meguiars and more impressively with the vast product offering that Meguiars has.

[RamAirV1]

Re: NEWS RELEASE - 3M to Acquire Meguiar's, Inc.

Ha, it can't be any worse than Meguiars making their own employee's wear black shirts in 100 degree heat while holding classes or detailing cars...

LOL! That's a good point!

RamAirV1

[ZoranC]

Re: NEWS RELEASE - 3M to Acquire Meguiar's, Inc.

I wonder what Mike Phillips thinks about all this.

Now I know how 3M got named: Mike Pennington, Mike Stoops, Mike Phillips.

(j/k)

[Tom Weed]

Re: NEWS RELEASE - 3M to Acquire Meguiar's, Inc.

To Mike and Mike, better buy some warm clothes for those visits to the corporate office in the Twin Cities................

BTW 3M is very regimented, and are very big on the suit and tie thing for it's employees.

It will be an adjustment for sure.

RamAirV1

Ha, it can't be any worse than Meguiars making their own employee's wear black shirts in 100 degree heat while holding classes or detailing cars...

[the other pc]

Re: NEWS RELEASE - 3M to Acquire Meguiar's, Inc.

My point here is the employee to sales ratio is very high and the company would seem to be already operating at a very high efficiency factor, hence it would be hard to find an area to layoff staff. Each employee is probably a necessity. ...

Yeah, that was one of my first thoughts, that if 3M wanted to “streamline” Meg’s to be more like them they’d have to hire a bunch of people.

Not as easy as it sounds though. Some companies don't have many employees because the outsource production of the products to other companies. So the people who make the actual product are not on the company mentioned's payroll. When I was at my local Mirror Glaze, the owner mentioned he gets alot of product from a company in Tennessee who makes the products for Meguiars. So the employee to sales ratio is not always straight forward as it seems on the surface.

Um, that company in Tennessee is Meguiar’s. Meguiar’s business headquarters in California. Meguiar’s production facility is in Tennessee.


PC.

[RacerX88]

Re: NEWS RELEASE - 3M to Acquire Meguiar's, Inc.

Thanks for that, Bob, and to all the rest of you who responded in kind.

The guys from 3M have been here for a couple of days and of course presented at our meeting yesterday morning. Barry was, naturally, very adamant that any partner he may take on would have to fully "get" us. 3M is acutely aware of the success of the Meguiar's brand and freely admit to "being in awe" of what Meguiar's has done with relatively limited resources. They have witnessed first hand the level of customer loyalty Meguiar's enjoys, even coming right out and saying they've never seen anything like it in the past. Ever. Not even close.

While not every detail has been 100% defined (and even if it were, well, some things are not for public consumption, you know?) the basic gist is this: 3M knows that to mess with the brand is a bad thing - they're here to infuse the resources necessary to grow Meguiar's into a global force, and to do it far more quickly than Meguiar's ever could on its own. This is an intelligent and savvy group. Exciting times ahead.

Mike-

That reads/sounds real good. Hopefully, 3M stays true to their intent. Megs is a great company, that make great products. More people just need to know about it!

[3Fitty]

Re: NEWS RELEASE - 3M to Acquire Meguiar's, Inc.

Well corporations are in the business of making money (wow, big surprise there ), so the intellectual heavyweights at 3M either look at Meguiar's as a successful business venture or something which can be made successful.

Based upon the info exchanged here, I think it's pretty clear that the brain trust at 3M figured they could just buy Meg's and keep it profitable and maybe even enhance it. If they did even the most rudimentary research about Meg's customers they would see that by in large they come from a segment of people who like good products at a low price (with amazing customer service to boot). I think if they try to tinker too much with any of those items, they could find themselves in trouble.

Where it gets interesting is with regards to the detailer line and the professional line. Will 3M be interested in mainting the "enthusiast" and "pro" market? Will they use their size to get these items more readily available to the average consumer? Who knows.

Only time will tell, so I guess we will just have to wait and see.

[Bert31]

Re: NEWS RELEASE - 3M to Acquire Meguiar's, Inc.

My point here is the employee to sales ratio is very high and the company would seem to be already operating at a very high efficiency factor, hence it would be hard to find an area to layoff staff. Each employee is probably a necessity.

From investopedia.com:

"What Is the Sales-per-Employee Ratio?

The name indicates how the sales/employee ratio is calculated: a company's annual sales divided by its total employees. Annual sales and employee numbers are easily located in published statements and annual reports.

The sales-per-employee ratio provides a broad indication of how expensive a company is to run. It can be especially insightful when measuring the efficiency of businesses such as banks, retailers, consultants, software companies and media groups. "People businesses" lend themselves to the sales per employee ratio.

Interpreting the ratio is fairly straightforward: companies with higher sales-per-employee figures are generally considered more efficient than those with lower figures. A higher sales-per-employee ratio indicates that the company can operate on low overhead costs, and therefore do more with less employees, which often translates into healthy profits."

Not as easy as it sounds though. Some companies don't have many employees because the outsource production of the products to other companies. So the people who make the actual product are not on the company mentioned's payroll. When I was at my local Mirror Glaze, the owner mentioned he gets alot of product from a company in Tennessee who makes the products for Meguiars. So the employee to sales ratio is not always straight forward as it seems on the surface.

[mcox]

Seth,

You're absolutely correct.

[seth1066]

Re: NEWS RELEASE - 3M to Acquire Meguiar's, Inc.

Although I agree with Seth in that 115 employees is not that many...

My point here is the employee to sales ratio is very high and the company would seem to be already operating at a very high efficiency factor, hence it would be hard to find an area to layoff staff. Each employee is probably a necessity.

From investopedia.com:

"What Is the Sales-per-Employee Ratio?

The name indicates how the sales/employee ratio is calculated: a company's annual sales divided by its total employees. Annual sales and employee numbers are easily located in published statements and annual reports.

The sales-per-employee ratio provides a broad indication of how expensive a company is to run. It can be especially insightful when measuring the efficiency of businesses such as banks, retailers, consultants, software companies and media groups. "People businesses" lend themselves to the sales per employee ratio.

Interpreting the ratio is fairly straightforward: companies with higher sales-per-employee figures are generally considered more efficient than those with lower figures. A higher sales-per-employee ratio indicates that the company can operate on low overhead costs, and therefore do more with less employees, which often translates into healthy profits."

[mcox]

Although I agree with Seth in that 115 employees is not that many one has to remember that 3M, as well as just about any other manufacturing company, have their own systems and processes in place that strive to continuously improve those systems in order to do more with what you have, lean manufacturing. A common misconception of lean is that it is used to justify laying people off when in its purest form it means just the opposite. That do more with what you have thing I mentioned earlier. Other things that we, or at least I, do not know is exactly what Barry’s new title is and who he may report to in the new org chart. We do know that Michael Stoops has said that Barry was/is very adamant about not changing what has made Meg special. Will that change? Who knows? Change for the sake of change is of course pointless. I’m sure that we all would agree that Barry “gets it.” We certainly do not know the language of the agreement and to what extent Barry has insisted on protecting both the brand and his employees. We all have a sense of the corporate culture of Megs from all of our interactions with the absolutely wonderful and passionate people that work there so we know. I would be stunned if 3M and Barry did not know. However, first A-B now Megs, it does make one wonder. I also had that feeling of, I don’t know, sadness maybe, when I read the press release. One thing we all must remember is that its 3M not an upstart company going crazy trying to line their pockets then bail. 3M did not become 3M by being completely stupid. As one of the Mike's said, 3M is acutely aware of Megs and their products. Ultimately, the merger(?) has to make good business sense from both sides of the table. I guess like everyone else that is involved, we will just have to wait and see and then make our pleasure known by either continuing to buy the product line or not.

[seth1066]

Re: NEWS RELEASE - 3M to Acquire Meguiar's, Inc.

Dave,

Although in principle I agree with the "tone" of your statement I am assuming that you did not know that a few years ago Electrolux put approximately 2500 hundred, I believe, people out of work in Greenville Michigan shortly after consolidating some of those companies that you mentioned.

Meguiar's has 115 employees producing $100 million in sales. Not too much there to cut.

[mcox]

Not all mergers are bad. In fact there are a lot of mergers that you never hear about and nothing ever changes. Example: Whirlpool, Kitchen Aid, Jenn Air, and I think Maytag are all the same company now. Electrolux owns Frigidaire. So just because a small company is bought out, it doesn't mean bad things are going to happen.Dave

Dave,

Although in principle I agree with the "tone" of your statement I am assuming that you did not know that a few years ago Electrolux put approximately 2500 hundred, I believe, people out of work in Greenville Michigan shortly after consolidating some of those companies that you mentioned.

[Alfisti]

Re: NEWS RELEASE - 3M to Acquire Meguiar's, Inc.

I don't mean to put words in his mouth, (and hopefully I am not...) but I had a chance to speak with him a bit earlier today (Well shoot, yesterday now that it is past midnight) and he seemed 100% positive! In fact, I think he wouldn't even have felt the need to address the topic had I not brought it up (That's how LITTLE he is worried about it, and let's be honest- Mike has more on the line here than any of us do!).

The outlook is truly 100% positive over at Meguiar's, it isn't smoke and mirrors. Mike (like many of us) is focusing on the POTENTIAL for positive growth and product integration. It's no secret that Meguiar's is the detailing supply king in our eyes, 3M and EDGE System Pads each had some winners in their line-ups as well. Now that they have all joined forces they have the potential to produce some absolutely stellar products and product lines, and hopefully even improve their distribution channels at the same time.

Thanks for the response.

[yalerd]

Re: NEWS RELEASE - 3M to Acquire Meguiar's, Inc.

The guys from 3M have been here for a couple of days and of course presented at our meeting yesterday morning. Barry was, naturally, very adamant that any partner he may take on would have to fully "get" us.

I really hope!
I wish the best not only to the Meguiar's brand itself but all you guys in there. All those Mike's