Dutchwest, or specifically the purchase of same, drove
Vermont Castings into the poorhouse and caused the founder to leave penniless!
How did this happen? Well you see the Dutchwest founder, Bruce McKinney, made some lousy stoves...but he was a heck of a salesperson. It was rumored they spent about $100 on each stove and about $200 on advertising to sell each!
They were pretty bad...real bad. But they sold a hell of a lot of them since they direct marketed and
People could not see them!
So, the Dutch owners puts his fist on the table like Nakita kruschev and says to VC we will bury you! - VC takes the bait and thinks We better buy them before they destroy us! ---No kidding, Folks - this is true....
So, VC bets the farm and pays many millions for Dutch - and when they actually see what they bought (patterns, molds, etc. etc) they soon found it was virtually NOTHING. They stored the stuff for use in future lawsuits and tooled up from scratch
Of course, this broke them, so the founder was given $1 and his walking papers. Even since that day, VC has passed from corp to corp, some better...some worse, but they basically fired anyone who had to do with the original company.
And thats the story of how Dutchwest broke VC! A sad tale it is...because Duncan (founder) deserved to make $$ off of his amazing creation!
Meanwhile, the dutch of today are decent stoves.....
Here is a thread with some literature posted for the Fedral Dutchwest stove:
http://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/53337/P66/#694274
