Put to the Sword
For many years Wilkinson Sword products have graced the shelves and display stands of our local garden centres and have become known for straddling both the keen gardener and the professional retail sectors. Their garden tools are not cheap, but do offer good value for money when you take into account the amount of innovation and design that goes into their products.
Sadly, from 2010 Fiskars will no longer use the Wilkinson Sword brand on their gardening tools and will revert back to the parent company’s name, Fiskars. With many of their products this process has already started and the black and orange is unlikely to ever bear the name Wilkinson Sword again.
Fiskars have promised to spend £2 million on marketing support over the next three years, but this is unlikely to win over all of the loyal customers who have come to recognise Wilkinson Sword as a brand they can trust and tend to associate Fiskars with the ubiquitous orange – handled scissors. On the positive side there has been almost no change to the range of garden tools Fiskars are selling, they just appear with a different label.
This follows a long tradition of British shoppers having to get used to rebranding with Marathon bars, Jif, Midland Bank, Dixon’s and Norwich Union just some of the brand names we have had to mourn in the past (Snickers, Cif, HSBC, Currys.digital and Aviva if you’re interested).
Wilkinson Sword is unlikely to be as upsetting a loss to many as some of the high street’s bigger names, but it is never the less sad to see it go even if I still get to use my PowerGear loppers, hedge shears and secateurs!
Will Wilkinson Sword’s loyal customers back the newly branded Fiskars tools or will they put them to the sword? Only time will tell.
The whole Quality Garden Tools range of Wilkinson Sword/Fiskars tools can be found here.
Any comments? Please email us at info@qualitygardentools.com
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