Bosch Power Tools to Sell Skil Brand to Chervon Ltd.
On August 23 the Robert Bosch Tool Corporation signed an agreement to sell their popular Skil brand to Nanjing, China based Chervon Ltd. Chervon was founded in 1993 and has been designing, manufacturing and testing tools which are sold in 65 countries. They are the current manufacturer of the Skil line which will hopefully make this transition go smoothly. After speaking to several dealers and Bosch sales representatives it sounds like this announcement came as a shock. For existing dealers the supply of Skil brand tools will continue from Bosch until December at which time they will transition to Chervon. Bosch has made huge strides lately with Skil and Skilsaw line. With the recent introduction of new circular saws, chop saws and a worm drive table saw Skil is in a definite upswing motion. Let’s hope nothing changes as far as the momentum goes. It’s hard for us not to think of recent similar sales which have all but killed popular brands. The most profound example would be the sale of Delta Machinery back in 2011 which was once a staple of the US tool scene. Their machinery is found in woodworking shops and schools throughout this country. Anyone who followed this sale and knows that once they were sold off the line quickly eroded away to something much different than the machinery powerhouse it once was. Now it’s all but impossible to source parts for non-current models and most everyone who once ran their tools has looked elsewhere and with a sour taste will likely never look back at Delta as an option no matter what they do in the future.