As the headwinds continue in the the grill category, the number of competitors in the space continues to shrink. LoCo Cookers likely shut down recently, and now it looks like Camp Chef is also getting out of the grill category.
Camp Chef has had an even more eventful past couple of years than most. They were owned by Vista Outdoor, who split the business, renamed the outdoor products side Revelyst, then shopped it and sold it the investment firm SVP.
Since Revelyst has been under new ownership, they have worked on rationalizing the real estate footprint of the business and consolidated the supply chain. They’ve also sold off some of the brands.
At Camp Chef, there hasn’t been any innovation in grills since the brand was sold. They kept selling what was already released, save some rebranded or iterative products.
It would now appear they don’t plan to do any innovation in grills. They’ve been selling down all their full sized grills and griddles, and all that still remains on their online store is the Woodwind 24 (not the Pro model) that’s being sold through their outlet. I’d take that as a pretty strong signal that they’re done with grills.
They have pared down their products to just those that are for camping, like camp stoves, camp griddles, and camp cooking systems. That’s the area of the business where they’re the strongest.
Their camping products are always rated well in media and there’s less competition. Even when they were investing in grills, they struggled to get distribution outside of sporting goods stores and specialty outdoor retailers.
From a put P&L standpoint, I get it. The grill category and Camp Chef brand were suffering, so it’s hard to justify investing in innovation when you’re losing money.
I will miss the innovation and their own flare that they brought. I thought the Woodwind Pro pellet grill was a really cool product that also performed very well for adding smoke and bark.
Prior to their sale, they brought their Smoke Box technology to a vertical pellet smoker, and they had a neat take on a griddle. I don’t know if there’s value in that Smoke Box IP for other grill companies, but it would be a great time to buy it.
Camp Chef was a formidable competitor in grills, so I’m sure the other pellet grill companies will happily take their share. It’s tough to stomach the shrinking of the market, but the refresh cycle and economic recovery will come, and those that continued to invest during weakness will come out in a much better position.