in power

I started my Equip Expo work early, thanks to an interview with Stihl USA executives Richard Cacchiotti, VP of product development and after sales, and Jason Mabb, VP of sales. We sat in the manufacturer’s display area, tucked into a storage room while the show floor came together, with loaders moving display pieces and staff arranging equipment. Here is our interview.

Executive Changes?

In Power

I’m gonna start by asking about recent changes at the executive level, and by recent I mean over the last few months. What do these changes mean today?

Jason Mabb, VP of sales

Bottom line, leadership changes are just a part of the business. They happen for a variety of reasons. What I can tell you is that I’m super happy to have Sean McGinnis as our new president. Sean’s got an incredible background of success, and we believe he is the right guy to take us through the next period of growth. The leadership team in place now has a lot of experience. And that’s important.

Sean was named 3 weeks ago. There was a sales leadership announcement a couple months before that. A VP and that’s me. I have 20 years with Stihl.

Ricky Cacchiotti, VP of product development and after sales

Jason also came in before that announcement in the interim as well. When we talk about the team coming together, Jason was with us on this new journey. We all had to work together and rally around the new plan, and I think that’s incredibly important. 


Equip Expo Plan?

In Power

What’s the direction or what’s the messaging here at Equip Expo? What are you trying to drive home to attendees?

Cacchiotti

It’s a twofold message. One, if we’re talking about the pro landscapers, No. 1, Stihl has a dual technology plan for them. We know not everybody wants to transition toward cordless right away. Great, no problem. We are launching a lot of new products here in gas. Strategic initiative here for us. One

Two. If you’re ready to go, we’re ready to support you as a battery brand as well. The name that you know, love, trust for 100 years in gas. You can come to us regardless, and we have solutions that you can honestly transition from gas toward cordless in performance, runtime, ergonomics, right? That equals productivity for their crews.

Mabb

I would add from a dealer perspective, I think our dealer base is second to none. I mean, providing the service. We have the programs in place to help these folks be successful. They have helped us get to the position where we are the No. 1 preferred handheld company in the landscape community. We’re proud of that record, and we couldn’t do it without the dealers. Ricky and his team, providing us the products, our dealers, providing us that face of Stihl, that world-class support. That’s the message.

Sales Channel?

In Power

Ace Hardware is a massive distribution point for you. Is it becoming a larger percentage, or I’m trying to get to, What’s the independent dealer world like right now?

Mabb

That’s a good question. Ace Hardware is definitely a big partner for us. We have different segments within the OPE dealer makeup, some are geared towards industrial, some are rental, some are more geared towards a pro landscaper. The Ace network, mostly independent owners, retailers that own shops, and some actually do quite well with the pro landscape business. We have some that offer rental, industrial, commercial. We have others yet that focus on the homeowners. It’s very much a mirror or a slice of what we see in the OPE channel. And that relationship has given us over the years is kind of some continuity, they are a partner. been a partner for a very, very long time. And they’re pivotal to our growth. And it’s just one piece of the Stihl puzzle.

In Power

But the independent dealer network, are you finding new ones? Are you finding new opportunities there with new dealer setups? What’s that market like?

Mabb

We can continually add OPE dealers and independent servicing dealers. That’s something the team is very passionate about. I would say that the health of the dealer, especially as we head into the battery transformation, is something we all talk about. We talk about it with the dealers. We talk about it amongst our teams, and we’re doing everything we can to make sure they’re on that journey with us. Quite honestly, we don’t become number one at what we do without them, and they are the part of our future. And we have to hitch our wagon to. They are absolutely essential to the success of this brand. As you know, we don’t sell at Home Depot or Lowe’s. So we will continue to foster those relationships and always look for new opportunities.

Cacchiotti

I’d also say that they’ve been the backbone of our service network as well. When you look at who we are as a brand, service for us is foundation. Absolutely critical and, to Jason’s point, that’s one of the elements of what makes us so special. When we talk about that gas-to-battery conversion of the pro, our OPE dealer will be at the heart of our conversations.

New Product Goals?

In Power

How much of new product expansions from the recent single stage snowblower to zero turns from a few years ago, how much of adding products is about satisfying dealers and helping dealers and branding in dealerships? I mean, you introduce products when it’s the right time to introduce a product, but I know that you want to have products because you want to own a floor space in multi-brand dealerships?

Cacchiotti

We also want to create excitement. It starts and ends with the user. I challenge my product team: What problem are you selling? Who are you solving it for? How will we measure success? They can’t answer those 3 questions, we don’t move forward with anything? And so, we look at the pain points of the users, and different segments have different pain points? If you look at the homeowner and a large area property owner, they have different pain points and wants than our pro arborist, or our pro landscapers. They all have different wants. So for us, it’s about creating that 360 solution for them. Surrounding users with solutions. Yeah, and that creates excitement. That excitement from the user translates into traffic at the dealer. So, we don’t want products to say, cool, we’re going to go and take all this space from a competitor. It is about user need, application, and surrounding them with solutions so they can stay either with our gas product or with our battery product, whatever they choose.

In Power

But your customer is the dealer. You sell to dealers, right? So they have to be satisfied 1st and want a thing and say, yes, we can sell this, and yes, we’re excited.

Cacchiotti

They’re part of the process, but what makes dealers happy? The widget or the customer coming in to buy the widget? It’s the customer flow. It’s the traffic flow, right? That is our job at Stihl, to make sure we support the user, who create that traffic. The dealer is absolutely a part of the process. But we’re starting with users.

Mabb

I also say, too, having spent so much time in the field, a lot of the requests that get sent in come from the dealers. I lost count on how many times I was asked for a snowblower. I’ve lost count on how many times I’ve been asked for longer run times on our battery blowers or quicker charging sloops. Longer bar lengths on a particular chainsaw size or class, because those aren’t because they like it. It’s because they get the feedback from their customers. That’s what I’m saying. The dealer is part of our feedback. They asked us because they’re getting asked.

Battery v Gas?

In Power

Batteries. I was fascinated when you changed the naming and put the numbers on it (which I used to ask about a lot so I feel like they listened to me). How is it being accepted? How did the dealers respond?

Mabb

From the dealer perspective, I would also put that in the bin with, that’s what they were asking for. Something as simple as adding a name like All Pro, giving that the features and benefits that they were also asking for, the runtime, that better durability, those IPX ratings. And then circling back to that quick charging time and then saying, This is now your All Pro solution. It separates that All Pro experience for the customer when they walk in. That prosumer, that pro now knows exactly where to go. More important than that, the dealer associates know exactly where to take them.

Cacchiotti

And what you’re going to see, and what our dealers will continue to see is the voice that we use when we talk All Pro is different than when we talk about our AK or AS battery system that’s targeted at the homeowner. There are a handful of different things that we’re doing to go and drive that message for them.

In Power

What percentage of your overall sales are battery products, what percentage gas?

Cacchiotti

Last year was the first year that we saw battery overtake gas. What we’re seeing, though, is a segment difference. That’s the actual story. Homeowners are converting to cordless at an exponentially faster rate than the pros. The pro, at this point, needs to be sold. They got to do the demo.

Mabb

And the consumer segment is obviously much, much larger. So it makes sense that battery has overtaken gas in that regard.

Cacchiotti

85% of consumers overall right now buy cordless product. When you see regulation in a municipality, like for noise, we could watch a spike in that area geographically, like by zip code.

How about Zero-Turn Mowers?

In Power

Zero turn mowers. How are sales coming? How’s the acceptance coming for that product? Like when I think it of the Ace Hardware in my neighborhood. They couldn’t stock one.

Cacchiotti

Overall acceptance is growing every year. We’re super excited about it. We’re launching a brand-new lineup this year, which we are absolutely ecstatic about. We’re launching a new consumer 100 and 200 series. We’re launching a prosumer step up, 400 and 500 series. The 400 series, by the way, is new to us this year. So we’re really excited there and we’re launching a lineup of our 600 series, which is 3 new pro stand-ons.

I would tell you that this is our signal to the industry that we are committed to zero turns. 
We’re investing in 0 turns. And, you know, next year at Equip we will launch a brand new lineup of pro zero turns. So we are on the march, and we continue our commitment to the program.

In Power

I’m always fascinated by manufacturing partnerships, and I think some of these machines are still manufactured by Greenworks. You used to have a deal with Ferris, and that ended.

Cacchiotti

I have suppliers all over the world that support us with stuff. There are folks that help us make stuff. There’s stuff that we help other folks make, but I don’t talk about manufacturing partnerships. As a brand I don’t talk about that.

US Manufacturing?

In Power

What’s going on in Virginia Beach, and how’s manufacturing happening here in the country?

Cacchiotti

Manufacturing’s great. You know, we have that battery facility there, manufacturing batteries for all of North America. It’s a huge commitment. Gas production here is still very strong. We’re a center of excellence on backpack blowers and string trimmers for the organization. When we talk about what’s going on in Virginia Beach, we’re busy.

Mabb

It’s not just whole goods, I mean, our bar plant is world class. We’ve got also the extrusion line. Yeah, that was the line, that’s expanded multiple times. It is definitely a source of growth. And that’s a great revenue maker, obviously, for the dealers. When you’re talking about some of those after sales items, bars, trimmer line, that come out of that facility, that’s a big win for Virginia Beach and for our folks at that plant.

Cacchiotti

And there’s nothing better than walking through the plant and you see the products actually coming to life, and it’s cool. There are chainsaws on the conveyor belt, and there’s no greater sense of pride than seeing everybody work and seeing all of it come together. For me, it’s inspiring. At least once a week, I make sure that I walk through the plane, just for that experience.

Pricing Pressures?

In Power

Let’s talk about cost and pricing a little bit. What’s going on? There’s a lot going on in the world that’s kind of weird. Have you been able to hold pricing? Have you had to do some periodic increases? Talk about costs and pricing?

Mabb

It’s been a bit of a roller coaster, I’d say, the last 18 months. Certainly been a lot of outside noise and pressures when it comes to price. Whenever we’re looking at price increases or decreases, we have one thing in mind. Is it going to position that product in a spot where the consumer will purchase it, and then do our dealership stores ask for that product? That’s bottom line.

Cacchiotti

Any decision is not taken lightly. Up or down. Every decision, we talk about it, we talk about the impacts of it, what it means. You move one thing and everything changes. The team gets together and we take all of that incredibly seriously. Last year, we had tariff pressure, like a lot of the industry. We sat down together as a leadership team and discussed it. And what it meant. We went through every single move, what it meant for the dealer, what it meant for the user. This year, there’s been some relief, and we’ve done the opposite, right? We repositioned a lot of things down. It doesn’t always just go one way.

In Power

Any specifics on that? What has come down in price?

Cacchiotti

We will have 50-something items, by January 1st, that will have the position down. Typically, it’s our core five products right now. We saw some chainsaws go down, we’ve seen battery powered string trimmers, blowers, hedge trimmers, mowers. When we have the opportunities to reposition down, we do, and we take more advantage of it.

In Power

When you position up or down, is it with an MSRP? Or with a dealer price and then let the dealer … ?

Cacchiotti

No, both. It’s part of that partnership. Jason’s team and my team spend a lot of time together when we have these conversations. One of the things I love about Stihl is nothing’s done in the back. And I think that’s one of the unspoken things about why we’re successful. We get together, we talk about it, we use feedback from the field, we talk to different dealers. Nothing’s done in the back. We take a real 360 approach to all of it and make sure we understand all the impact before we just go and do something. That why I said nothing is taken lightly.

In Power

Are you doing more at Virginia Beach on your own because of manufacturing and supply chain pricing pressures?

Cacchiotti

Where it makes the most sense, we’ll bring things in to manufacture. I mean, tariff pressure is probably the easiest one to talk about. If we’re getting too much pressure from somewhere else, we’ll move a line and we’ll bring it here if that makes sense. We’re going to start making mowers in January here. For our 4 series and over, we’re going to start making it. Battery and gas just brought the design over. We brought the line here.

The Stihl family won’t hesitate to make that call. to bring additional manufacturing home. Like I said, it’s gotta make sense.

In Power

Just for the American consumer, or will they be manufactured here and exported, like some other things?

Cacchiotti

The American market’s big enough to support that, and so, It’s really North America,

In Power

Ecommerce, what’s going on with, what are the trends with retail that way? Have e-commerce sales increased for you?

Mabb

The answer is yes. That’s one of those evolutions that we take with the dealers. A lot of the conversations that we have when we’re talking about levers that you can pull to grow additional sales, e-commerce is definitely top of mind. Because we’ve been relying solely in the past on walk-ins for traffic. In many cases, a lot of those e-commerce sales were incremental. It could be the first opportunity that a customer has with that particular dealer. We’re trying to give them the tools in place, if you look at the Stihl marketplace, that’s a tool that we provide to all dealers, so they can be active on e-commerce. Some are a little more advanced and have their own e-commerce platforms, which we also support.

Our interview ended abruptly, before we could talk specifics about new products, but that news is coming on Wednesday. Stay tuned.