Swiss Army Knives Shift Focus to Boardroom From Battlefield
Swiss Army Knives Tap Knife-Less Market to Beat Sales Drop
Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images
Sales of Swiss army knives plunged after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, after airlines banned knives on board.
Sales of Swiss army knives plunged after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, after airlines banned knives on board. Photographer: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images
The Swiss army knife may need a new name. Just one day of production covers the annual needs of Switzerland’s military, while the rest is sold to can-opening hikers or laser-pointing boardroom executives.
Magda Stefini of Lake Iseo in Italy decided that a 14-tool Outrider from Victorinox AG’s flagship store in Geneva on Jan. 3 would be the perfect gift for her father’s 83rd birthday.
“He’s a hunter and an outdoorsman, so I got him one with a big blade and a saw to cut through little branches,” said Stefini, 52. “I also wanted the corkscrew because he makes his own wine.”
Victorinox, founded in 1884 in the central Swiss town of Ibach, is the sole provider of the knives after buying rival Wenger SA in 2005. The acquisition saved Wenger from bankruptcy, and the two now focus on producing practical tools for the office and everyday life as security concerns across the globe make it more difficult to travel on planes with a knife.
The do-it-all penknife, whose owners include Pope Benedict XVI, the Dalai Lama and U.S. space shuttle crews, has retained a following among tourists, golfers and IT specialists who store data on its USB stick. They come in bestselling bladeless versions and are also used by assistants to executives to punch holes or by aficionados to cut their cigars, and are given to every Swiss army recruit.
‘Very Recognizable’
Stavroula Panagiotou, a Greek attorney, snapped up five of the knives for family and friends last month.
“I’m going to buy some chocolate and cheese, but I got the knives because they are more healthy, they’ll last longer and it’s very recognizable that they are Swiss,” Panagiotou, 30, said after overseeing the engraving of the pocket knives.
With gadgets ranging from the traditional screwdriver, nail file and hacksaw to the more trendy altimeters, temperature gauges and flashlights, Swiss army knives have for years been used by travelers. The 2001 terror attacks that led to tighter security measures and sliced into sales prompted both companies to develop new products.
“We lost a third of the turnover overnight,” Peter Hug, Wenger’s chief executive officer, said in an interview at the company’s headquarters in Delemont, 95 kilometers (60 miles) north of the Swiss capital Bern.
Clipper Craze
Wenger moved into knifeless devices such as what Hug, 49, called “a sort of office toolbox” that features a stapler, hole punch, scissors and optical gauge. Today, the company’s top product isn’t a knife at all, but a nail clipper, he said.
With annual sales of 500 million Swiss francs ($530 million) and 900 employees in Ibach alone, Victorinox dwarfs Wenger, which has 250 workers. Victorinox makes 28,000 Swiss army knives daily.
The two companies are active in the army-knife market and both also sell watches, luggage, cutlery and clothing. Wenger in 2006 shifted its focus to outdoor products, returning to what Hug calls “our roots, back to where we belong,” while Victorinox moved into luxury items such as watches or an eau de toilette that sells for 89 francs.
Along the way to developing the more than 100 Swiss army- knife varieties that include magnifying glasses and chisels, Victorinox considered ideas for knife combinations that sometimes bordered on the ridiculous, said Urs Wyss, the company’s marketing director. Victorinox weighed and decided against knives that integrated a cell phone, an extendible ruler and a small spoon to remove ear wax.
$1,200 Knife
That doesn’t mean all ideas that looked unusual in the beginning were rejected. Wenger produced a $1,200 knife that includes every implement it’s ever made and is now a collector’s item. The 87-tool penknife, which has 14 blades, golf tools and a signal whistle and weighs about 7 pounds, made it into the Guinness Book of World Records.
While Victorinox and Wenger suffered in 2003 when Switzerland decided to cut its military by half, they got a boost in 2008 when the Defense Ministry said only domestic manufacturers could supply the Swiss army knife. That quashed potential plans by companies in China, Bulgaria and Taiwan to bid for a contract to produce 65,000 of the penknives.
The Landesmuseum in Zurich staged an exhibit last summer about the knife, calling it “the tool that’s become an icon.” The exhibit was extended three months to the end of January after attracting more than 40,000 people.
Michael Goldthorpe, 49, a consultant from Yorkshire, England, bought a 9-blade knife for his gardener.
“A Swiss army knife is the epitome of Swiss gifts and engineering,” he said. “I thought cuckoo clocks, chocolate and Swiss army knives -- our gardener’s wife got the chocolate.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Jennifer M. Freedman in Geneva at jfreedman@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net
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