Click here to sign-up to receive the newsletter every week in your email in-box.
Charcoal companies looking to take market share away from Kingsford will have to keep trying. While Kingsford’s parent Clorox sounded alarm bells previously after a price increase resulted in lower sales, they’ve worked to recover. In their most recent results, they overdelivered on sales through enhanced merchandising, while keeping the price increases in place.
Solo Brands continues to expand their outdoor lifestyle offerings. It was revealed in an SEC filing that they’ve acquired portable air conditioning company IcyBreeze. They bought the brand for a cool $30 million in cash value.
If you live in the northeast and like to gas grill, you should check your propane tanks. AmeriGas issued a recall this week for tanks sold in the Southern & Central New Hampshire and Eastern Massachusetts (Boston Metropolitan) areas between the dates of July 27, 2023 – August 2, 2023. There is a defect where the tank can leak after it’s disconnected from a grill, but not turned off. The defective tanks have the marking EVAS-M0859 on the collar.
Vista Outdoor named their Sporting Products company The Kinetic Group this week. We should learn the name of the Outdoor Products company in the coming weeks. They said they’ll have a full brand launch at an investor day in October.
Mill Scale Metalworks is a Texas manufacturer of high quality offset smokers and other grills. Sales have increased for them to the point that they’re opening a new facility. The 10,000 square foot production facility will still be located in Lockhart, TX with a groundbreaking on August 25th.
W.C. Bradley Co. filed for a trademark for the name Tahoma. It covers grills and grill related products, with charcoal grills specifically called out. We don’t know anything more than a name at this point, but we’ll see if the grill ends up at Char-Broil or Oklahoma Joe’s.
I did two product reviews this week, both for solid products. The first was for the PK Grills PKGO Hibachi. It’s their smallest grill, but it’s cast aluminum like their other products. While it’s a great portable grill, it gets to temp so quick that I find myself cooking on it all the time at home.
The second was for the Yeti Crossroads 27l backpack. This backpack is perfect for everyday use, hikes, and even a trip to Disney. The only downsides are it’s heavy and, like other Yeti products, it’s a little pricey.