I was at TSC yesterday picking up some replacement parts for my King Kutter stuff. There were 2 sets of blades that they intermixed packages with the King Kutter brand and CountyLine brand in the same rack. You would think TSC would insist their supplier (in this case King Kutter) supply replacement parts with their own brand in order not to make the source less obvious. My last KK purchase was labeled Made in India. Does anyone know if they have an Indian plant to produce product or if they purchase a standard product that they have branded with their logo? This same product is sold by TSC under the CountyLine name. Interesting if King Kutter finds a supplier for a low volume product they need to fill out their line (low volume that doesn't warrant design & build of their own), then procures that same product under multiple trade names for their customers. I worked with a supplier, MacDon, that supplied windrowers to majors like Case IH (for whom I worked), John Deere, Massey-Ferguson and others. Mr. MacDonald, founder, told his sons that if they designed and built under their name, they might at best get 20% market share. If, however, they went after the majors as a supplier, they had a much greater potential. When I left Case IH, MacDon had 75% market share with the advantage of much larger purchase volumes to keep their costs down.
