Editing The Pen Addict 394/transcript (section)

== Retro 51 Shutdown News ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 394. Today's show is brought to you by Harry's. My name is Myke Hurley. I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi, Brad. Hello, Myke. I'm not rushing. I'm not wasting any time today because I expect the majority of the audience want to know what we think about Retro 51 shutting down, because that is the news that came in over the wire last night from the Retro 51 blog. I want to read a quote from the open letter from the Retro 51 team. With the new year and the new decade, it's also time for something new for a handful of the Retro 51 team, retirement. Retro 51, as you know, will be making some changes and going on a sabbatical. What does this mean? We are still trying to figure it out, but there is a potential for new ownership. A Retro could come back of a new business plan that we feel will thrive in the ever-changing retail market. It is also possible that the Retro 51 brand will be retired. So that's where we are right now. What is it? By the end of March, there will be no more products made. Is that correct?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. I mean, they have further plans through July, June, July. Right. Pull up the site, but just that paragraph alone is a lot to take in.

'''Myke Hurley:''' There's a lot of things happening there.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So we don't get this type of news in our little realm of the world. Companies come and go, stores open, stores close, but to have just such a core company in the things that we use and believe in and enjoy and have fun with, to drop kind of this out of nowhere.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I don't remember. Because from the outside, they seem very successful, right? Like every pen that they sell that has a limited edition will sell out, right? And you would assume that if you're running your business correctly, that would mean that you would turn on a profit, right? Because you would be aware of that. But what it seems is just that, and it's kind of an interesting thing, a bunch of the team, they've finished. Like they're done. They want to retire. Which is a perfectly valid thing to want to do. But then there are a bunch of questions.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So, I mean, I have a little bit of an insight of the structure of Retro 51. The owner is an older gentleman. His name's George. He's very quiet. He's very, like, behind the scenes. He came from successful businesses before Retro 51 to before founding Retro 51. And he's just, like, the private owner of the company. And over all the years that we've worked with them, and I've been a fan of the brand. I've met him in person once. He's written me a couple of letters. And we've had a phone call for him. He's always just been, like, super thankful for, you know, what we say about the brand. Like, he just wanted to reach out and say thanks. But I never worked with him, right? Like, I worked with a lot of people at a lot of different companies. But as the owner of Retro 51, I never worked with him. Some of the people I did work with had been there for 20-plus years. And they'd been, you know, retiring. And George is, you know, he's not, like, crazy old. But, you know, he's an older gentleman. I'm sure he's ready to wind it down. He's had a successful business life, right? Yeah. He's had a very good life. You would assume. Yep. And I know some of the employees that I work with had been there for 20-plus years. And they were retiring, too, you know. And I guess it was just one of those things that was time. So I first kind of got wind of it last week when I was talking with them about some upcoming projects. Because I always do stuff with them. And we're going to talk more about that in a minute. And, you know, my normal contact there was like, hey, this all sounds awesome. We got some things coming out next week. So let's get back together next week. Just hang tight about a week. And we'll talk again then. Let's set up a call. I'm like, okay, that's cool. It's like I didn't think too much about it. Because when I've shipped designs to them before, they've held me off. Because we've come close to like similar designs in the past, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' So they have a pipeline, right? Yeah. And they get stuff out. And then, yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. So their pipeline is pretty long. Like they know like the rest of their time, you know, the next six months or so, they know what's coming out. So they'll say, oh, we have this announcement coming. And just hang tight on that design or whatever. And so I didn't think too much about it. And then I went to the Philadelphia Pen Show. And some of my friends in the business started asking me what I knew. And I'm like, huh, that email just became a lot more interesting. And so I talked to a couple people this weekend. They were under the same impression that I was that something was coming. And that's probably what it was, that they were just going to close down. But the weird thing was, was it just going to shut down? Like, you know, go off into retirement and, you know, sunset the company. Were they going to sell the company? Or what was actually going to happen? And this letter didn't really clear that up. The way I read this, and I would wager you read it the same way, is I just think they're done. Like, I think they're just, like, going to finish out the rest of this year. Unload all their, you know, finish all their current projects. And then just hang a sign on the door and say, you know, thanks. Thanks for everything.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Like, the idea of saying that you're retiring and then saying Retro could come back of a new business plan that we feel will thrive. Like, that doesn't make any sense, right? Like, those two things don't seem to make sense. Like, the people that are retiring are surely not going to go away and retool and come back, right? Like, that just seems very unlikely. But the thing for me is, like, it just seems so interesting to just do this. Like, this is what you do. I mean, if you're proud of your thing and you don't want it to be ruined by somebody else, then, yeah, like, I get it. Like, close it down. But this is a brand which has value. And if you just want to retire, then maybe there's some benefit in trying to sell that or license that brand and the intellectual property to somebody who can carry it on so you make more money. But maybe if that's not what you want, like, if you don't care about the money but you care about your legacy, right, then maybe you don't want to sell it. The reason I'm saying this is because I'm desperately interested in seeing how much it will cost to buy this company.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Totally. I would think we both are. Yeah. And that's what I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around. You know, like, I get exactly what you said. You know, if you built this company out, how long have they been around? It's got to be 20, between 20 and 30 years, I'm guessing. You know, and they're well-liked, well-respected.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You know, there's value in selling the company, even if we don't know the business side of it. You know, could they be, you know, is there debt? Like, they talk about the ever-changing retail and retail market. You know, are they not making a profit anymore because of, you know, whatever goes on, you know, on the backside that none of us know about. But the value in just their design catalog has to be immense, right? I mean, and their licensing. And I would think, if nothing else, like, sell it off and then be done with it, right? Like, you don't have to sell it and be part of it for the next three years. You know, you could just sell it off and say, we're out. And I would think they would have suitors lined up at the door.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, I mean, let's be real. Like, if they were thinking about selling this, or probably right now, I'm sure they're having to bat away people with sticks. Like, oh, Brad and Myke over here who want to buy Retro 51 would probably be at the back of the line. Yeah. But, like, it is something, like, I know it's just maybe a super weird thing to be talking about in public. But, like, I would 100% consider this if I could afford it, right? Or if we could afford it, because I have a little experience with making things now. You know, you have way more than me. Owning a brand like this, if, you know, if we could find a way to get the products made, like, I know I could sell them.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think that's the least of the worries. Yeah. Is actually getting it made. Yeah. Now, I mean, you know, they, like, I keep coming back to the ever-changing retail market with the new business plan statement in here. But it just tells me that, like, it's tight, right? Mm-hmm. So, there would be changes, but maybe they're just not willing to make those. Maybe those changes, they feel, like, wouldn't add value to the brand. Like, if you have to have a 50% price increase.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Or it might be the case of, like, the company can't be run at the size that it's at. And they don't want to change that. But, like, a four-person outfit might be significantly different to a 15-person outfit as to what the company can afford. And, or, like, if your entire income wasn't based on this brand, right? Right. Like, imagine a world in which the Pen Addict podcaster owns the Retro 51, right? Like, we don't, not all of our income would be based on selling these pens because we both have many other businesses, right? And that, like, we could maybe make a much smaller profit, right? And it still makes sense for us. This is a super weird conversation to be having in public. But, like, it's just, like, something that's been batting around in my head. Like, if they want to sell this brand and they want a good suitor for it, there is no one better than me and Brad, right? Right, right, right. Brad, I could finally become the spokesperson I've always wanted to be.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, my God. That's right. You could finally become the spokesperson for Retro 51. Yeah, I mean, I would be hard-pressed to find any better suitors than us to carry on the brand. But the problem is, you know, it's at a different scale, I think, from if they were, the retirement being zero and, you know, the selling it to someone else who's going to carry on the brand being 100, like, we're down in, like, the 20 range, right? Like, there's, as far as, like, who would be able to operate a business this size.

'''Myke Hurley:''' We would only be able to take over something like this because they want people they can trust, not the highest bidder. Right. Because we would not be the highest bidder. Exactly. Exactly. But if the thinking is, like, oh, I want someone to give the keys to that will run the kingdom well, like, with respect, you know, we are those people.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. But anyway, this is... It's worth finding out an answer to, at least for our perspective. Yeah, I would love to know.

'''Myke Hurley:''' If anybody out there at Retro 51 would like to contact me and Brad to talk about this, we'd be very, very welcome. But anyway, moving back from this, like, super weird hypothetical, I'm really just so sad about this, right? Like, you know, I don't know if there are many more people that love Retro 51 and their products more than I do. Like, I own more Retro 51 pens than I own pens, right? Like, over 50% of my pen collection is Retro 51s. Like, I absolutely adore the products of this company. And, you know, I even got a new one, like, yesterday. You know, the one that looks like the Great Gatsby that we spoke about a few weeks ago? Yeah, oh, so good. I have that one now, too, right? Like, I'm so sad that there won't be more pens from this company, especially because I never got to make one. And we were going to.