RototilleR – the 1960’s, continued from October 2020

Say Hello to Dean Leith, Jr. & A Marvel of Marketing 

By: John R. Pattison

May 2021

Hello again to all you ‘RototilleR’ Fans out there!

Picking up from last October 2020, where we left the first part of “RototilleR – the 1960’s”, we introduced George Done’s new “Model A Trojan Horse Tiller,” which rolled off the assembly line at Troy’s Tiller Factory in February of 1962. I used the words then “in the nick of time”, and “It felt good; like there was no way to go but up.”

Well, here it is in a flier which went out to dealers

to promote sales. This is the model that was shown at the 1961 Schaghticoke Fair where it caused quite a stir. Fair goers around here were familiar with the Model T. It was a local product which had a national reputation. Now the T was gone, and here they were looking at something very different and potentially better. Many locals had worked at the tiller factory and rumors were around saying it was game-over.

Seeing this new model created hope by showing up “in the nick of time.” Maybe Troy’s tiller factory actually had re-invented itself like it did back in ’49 when the T first showed up, again “in the nick of time.” The T had the astonishing effect of establishing the rotary tiller as a serious home gardening tool on the national scene. It also rescued the factory, back then, from the market failure of the “Roto-Ette” by giving home gardeners a product they needed, loved and would happily pay for.

And so, it had to feel good, seeing this from my perch, for Done and Company to create a new improved product to fill the void left open by the departure of the T. They had been there with Kelsey, GB Cluett II, Dealers, Employees, Bankers, Creditors and Friends through the start-up in the ‘30’s, the war years and the Roto-Ette, the success of the T years - now gone; and here was a re-incarnated new model featuring the best of what the past years had taught them about building a rotary tiller. 

Maybe they did have “nowhere to go but up,” but when one is at the very bottom, “Up” can be a steep climb, and frankly, the only option.

Hey, look guys, let’s take a lesson from Dorothy on the way to Oz, who had to get through the “But First, you have to kill the Wicked Witch---” bit, until Toto opened the curtain to reveal what we already knew. You know how all this goes.

Yes, there is a big “But First” in store for the boys at Troy’s Rototiller Factory. They had the first piece of a new chapter, Oz was in sight, and my guess is, “it felt good….”But First, well, look at what Gardening Beyond the Plow (A) had to say about this situation:

Clearly, if you think Dorothy had it rough, the “But First” command for these tiller-guys was an even bigger list. And top of the list had to be a marketing plan.
The Rototiller Factory needed to get the Rototiller out of the Rototiller Factory and out to the throngs of people who were gardening and, as it turned out, hungry for just such a product.
And that swings our conversation over to the next topic, A Marvel of Marketing.

Troy’s Tiller Factory was no longer Rototiller, Inc. It was now Watco Machine Products. Same location, same personnel, same address. The only change was the corporate structure of the company. Rototiller had been sold, copy rights included. Now Done and Shop Forman Pete Maraj, along with new shareholders Carl Grimm, who owned the building, and Myers Hinderer, who owned the foundry which poured the castings for tiller components, re-organized as Watco Machine Products, a name which attempted to reflect the areas of Watervliet and Troy. Because Done had no working capital, he had to pay the rent and supplies of essential iron castings with shares of stock in lieu of cash. Soon, he would have to do the same with his marketing consultant, as we shall later see.

And the immediate task at hand was to get sales moving.
Here’s the timeline:

• Jan ’62 – Dealer Letter to Ray Riddle.

• Nov ’62 – Done called Lyman Wood for marketing help.

• Jan ’64 – letter to Nielsen Dealership suggesting the “T” available as a “Plan B”

• Fall ’65 – The Speed Graphic

• Fall ’66 – Dean Leith arrives in Troy

• End “the ‘60’s” with sales figures to date, and looking ahead to the ‘70’s

Now, pull up your chairs, Kiddos, and let Grandpa John attempt to describe the pain, the sparks and the drama that details the timeline that completes “RototilleR, the 1960’s”…just follow the Yellow Brick Road…

Jan ’62 – letter to Dealer Ray Riddle –

With the Fall 1961 Schaghticoke Fair promotion of the new “Trojan Horse” model, George Done was encouraged about going forward. Prospect of sales looked good. He had his loyal dealers who were there for him when he came out with the “Model T.” But now Kelsey was gone. Cluett, too, who had successfully cashed out when cash was plentiful in the late ‘50’s. So, in Jan. 1962, he got right to work contacting his dealers with the news, photo included, that the Trojan Horse was going into production in Feb. 1962. In a letter obtained from Gardening Beyond the Plow[1] , he was offering old time dealer Ray Riddle of Palmer, MA, a renewed opportunity with this new model. We presume many other former Rototiller dealers were offered the same deal.

Nov ’62 – Done called Lyman Wood for Marketing Help

We do know that in Nov. of that same year Done put in a call to Lyman Wood asking for help with marketing. It’s easy for us to read into this that he was disappointed with the dealer response to date, and was getting a bit nervous, maybe even panicky. Done had called upon his experience over the last twenty-five years to create the best tiller product to date. Yet, he still lacked working capital, a surefire plan of marketing, and worse yet, he could no longer use the Rototiller trademark. Back in the ‘50’s, Lyman Wood had wanted Kelsey to expand his marketing vista beyond the limits of his dealer network, using direct mail as a way to expand sales, and Kelsey would have no part of it. Done recalled those conversations and the prospect of a workable sales plan was too tantalizing to leave untried.

Lyman showed up to explain to Done that advertising directed at the gardening public could generate sales. Folks everywhere who actually gardened would see the benefits of this product and would want to know more about it, and with Woods’ advertising background, he was confident that his methods would sell tillers. Further, Wood offered to pay for the initial trials, knowing that Watco couldn’t. Deal made, Lyman proceeded to place ads and generate a lot of sales leads for the next two years.

Jan ’64 – letter to Nielsen suggesting the T available as a “Trojan Horse Model T”

Now two years have slipped by since the Jan ’62 Dealer letters went out. The Serial Numbers Chart published in “Rototiller in America” [2] show the first Horse model at 101 in April ’62. By April ’63 they were up to 372, and by April ’64 they rolled 721 out the door. That means they’d sold 620 units in two years; nice, but not sustainable. So, in a letter obtained from the archives of the former Nielsen Dealership of Glen Rock, NJ, one of Kelsey’s oldest and most productive dealers, we see Done offering a less expensive model to offer their clientele – the “Trojan Horse Model T.” The Horse model retailing at $350.00 now had a junior model priced at $266.00 with a production date of Feb ‘65. And this junior model is none other than the good old Model T. Was this a trial balloon? Too bad we can’t ask George Done. Wood has had all of ’63 to produce mail-order sales and, in retrospect, we know some had been shipped, but no details. Mail-order collected full payment up front which should have helped with cash flow, but that info also is not available to us now. Guess-work suggests that bringing back the Model T looks like Done was having second thoughts about Mail-order and was trying to boost dealer activity. Anyway, it never happened. Maybe he got talked out of this Junior Model idea. It seemed plausible and easily produced; we’ll never know.

Fall ’65 – The Speed Graphic

Sales of the Horse over the last three years (Apr. ’62 to Apr. ’65) amounted to about 1200 units shipped. Woods’ ad campaign had produced some of those sales, but he wasn’t sure about the data, so he set out for Troy to pick up his Speed Graphic camera and have a chat with Done. A detailed recount revealed about forty sales from the advertising, not from dealers.
To both Done and Wood this was startling news, a definite game changer. Advertising can’t generate dealer orders, but it can create direct sales. If so-many ad dollars can fetch forty sales, then so-many more ad dollars can fetch many more sales; not so with dealer orders.
Now Done had a new source of sales, though at the time he had no idea the power of this new marketing bonanza. And Wood had costs of around $23,000.00 to date for his part of this new venture, which Done could not pay. So now Wood & Co. became stockholders in Watco, in addition to the landlord and the iron foundry, and was very pleased that he stopped by to pick up his Speed Graphic on that fateful day.

So, this was “the Marvel of Marketing” referred to earlier; proof that one can sell anything by direct mail techniques.

Now, to increase sales, more ads would be needed which would require more investment. For this Wood turned to his three partners at the “Life Study Fellowship”. He needed them involved because they did the work of the ad agency. So, Lyman offered each a loan from his company of $10,000.00 to purchase shares in this Troy Tiller venture. Altogether, Life Study Fellowship of Noroton, CT put up $160,000.00 in addition to Lyman’s initial $23,000.00 and these four individuals ended up with 62.5 % of the voting stock in Watco [3], as tiller sales continued to climb.

Fall ’66 – Dean Leith arrives in Troy

Serial # 1825 was headed to the loading dock at this time, and “nowhere to go but up” was becoming laughable; the mantra now was “how do we keep up with ‘up’?” The marketing money was now coming from Lyman Wood and his partners who had rescued the tiller factory from who-knows-what-fate. It was a blessing for Troy, though the cost to Done was control of the company. New employment and good paying jobs were now increasing to keep up with demand and Wood & Co. soon saw fit to find a general manager who would move to Troy to take charge of operations. For this, he chose Dean Leith, Jr. a sales executive From R.L. Polk, a Michigan transplant living in the Norwalk, CT area. More about Dean later, but he and family arrived in Troy in the Fall of ’66 where he got right to work. To finish up with the ‘60’s let’s have a look at the tiller factory’s output through the decade. From the five years since rolling out Ser. #101 in 1962 to Ser. #1825 at the end of 1966, production amounted to 1825 units; or 365 tillers per year. In the next three years, since Dean came on board, production amounted to 7688 units; or 2564 units per year.

You don’t need any editorial comment from the author to decide if Wood & Co. had made a good choice; the figures speak for themselves.

Wrapping up “RototilleR – the 1960’s”, we look back at the early years of outside engineering talent coming to Troy with the help of local money and look ahead to many years of outside money coming to Troy to provide marketing help for our local engineering talent.

Now the task is to “get the Rototiller out of the Rototiller Factory and out to the throngs of people who were gardening and, as it turned out, hungry for just such a product.”

Stay tuned, fearless readers, for “RototilleR – the 1970’s”. Oz is still in sight, but the “Yellow Brick Road” holds much drama ahead, and we’ll get where the story leads us, “all in good time, My Pretties!”

JRP
jrscompostpile.com

Authors Notes:

Thanks to Allen Cluett and Charlie Zuck of zucksrototillers.com for invaluable research help throughout this entire series. Also, thanks our friend Alice McLoughlin for expert copy-editing assistance. 

Sources:
[1] Gardening Beyond the Plow, Copyright 1981, Garden Way, Inc.
[2] The Rototiller in America, Copyright 2003, Donald A. Jones
[3] What a Way to Live and make a living, Copyright 1994 by Roger Griffith and Lyman Wood