January 2020 - 14

VINEYARD MANAGEMENT
A counterfeit Felco No.2 pruner, bottom, and the real thing, above. Note the difference
in how the logos are applied. Photo: Felco
Genuine Felco pruners are hung out for sale at the Great Lakes Fruit, Vegetable & Farm
Market EXPO in Grand Rapids in December. Photo: Stephen Kloosterman
Pruner maker points to counterfeits purchased online
By Stephen Kloosterman
Associate Editor
Anna Claire Novotny from
Buttonwood Hollow Farm in Chatham,
New York, has been using Felco No. 2
secateurs for many years. You might say
they're a fixture of her life as a grower.
Her parents still use original Felco
shears from the 70s and 80s. Her father
gave her husband and her each a pair of
the shears as wedding gifts.
" They've been a part of my life, a
symbol of good craftsmanship, and a
necessary tool for us, " she said.
So, imagine her surprise when she
ordered another pair online and opened
up the box to find a knockoff - " a
counterfeit, and a poor copy at that, "
she said.
She's not the only one to feel that sense
of horror.
Ryan Amberg, Felco business
development manager, said the
company started to hear about the
counterfeit Felco shears in the fall
QUALITY PRUNING
EQUIPMENT
of 2018 through the holiday season.
The company, which has tracked dozens
of complaints since then, in the fall
of 2019 started a program offering to
replace the counterfeits with genuine
articles at no charge. Growers can send
in their suspected counterfeit and have it
replaced free of charge if it's determined
to be a fake.
Although Felco does have a line of
pneumatic and electric pruning shears,
the most commonly copied are the
classic models: The iconic Felco No. 2,
and more ergonomic models such as
the No. 6, and two that are often used in
agriculture: The No. 7 and No. 8.
Customers are often professional
pruners or gardeners. And it's difficult
to overstate their disappointment upon
seeing the edge on what was supposed
to be a Swiss-made, quality tool quickly
fold over. Customers like Novotny are
passionate about their tools. A grower
from the Finger Lakes area of New York
has an image of the shears tattooed on
his forearm, according to a photo he
posted on Facebook.
" They know these products are built
to last, generation after generation, "
Amberg said.
There are a few ways to spot fakes. For
instance, the counterfeit blades are often
attached with a screw on the inside of
the blade while Felco blades are always
attached to handles by three pins, never
with screws. Felco tools have a clear, fine
logo stamped deeply into the aluminum
handles, while the counterfeits have
logos that are laser-cut, sloppy and even
have spelling mistakes like " ELCO " or
" FILCO. " Other ways to spot the fakes -
and the details of how to exchange them
- are available at www.realfelco.com.
The problem's complicated by the fact
that there are also real Felco pruning
shears sold alongside of the counterfeits
on mainstream e-commerce sites. Felco
deals with about 2,000 retailers in the
United States, some of whom sell online.
" We do not work with Amazon
800.452.6748
sales@peachridge.com | www.peachridge.com
14 | FruitGrowersNews.com
directly, but we do know there are
retailers and wholesalers that do work
with them, " Amberg said.
Felco's not the only manufacturer to
struggle with counterfeits sold online,
for instance, the Birkenstock footwear
brand has had a similar problem,
he said. It's unknown who exactly
manufactures the counterfeit pruning
shears, although they do seem to be
Asian-made, probably in China or
Taiwan, Amberg said.
" Folks are getting ripped off, " Novotny
said. " I'm a huge fan of Felco. I give them
as gifts, and I recommend them to other
farmers. I want these frauds stopped. "
An estimated 3,000 customers have
unknowingly purchased counterfeit
pruners on Amazon, according to Felco.
" We immediately reached out to
Amazon to attempt to resolve the
issue, but have been unable to settle it
satisfactorily. Counterfeit tools continue
to be sold on Amazon, even as recently
as this week, and some customers have
returned counterfeits only to receive a
replacement counterfeit product from
Amazon - that just doesn't live up to our
customer expectations, " said Stephan
Kopietzki, Felco chief commercial officer.
The replacement program is expensive
for the company, but Amberg said it's
necessary to protect customers' longterm
loyalty to the brand.
" It's something we felt we had to do, "
he said. " This legacy that Felco has is one
of the last of its kind in the tool world
to manufacture things for a lifetime, (to
manufacture) generational tools. This
kind of product doesn't exist as often as
it did 40 years ago. Now we have a bit
of a throwaway culture in certain tool
markets, and Felco really stands behind
something that, you replace the blade,
you replace the spring, the nut, the bolt
and you keep this tool over 10, 20, 30,
40 years even. We see this counterfeiting
scenario as a direct threat to brand
integrity and we want to make sure our
customers know we stand behind them,
and we make a long-term commitment
to them, just like we do with our tools. "
Customers who believe they may
have a counterfeit tool should visit www.
realfelco.com, download a free shipping
label, and mail their counterfeit tool
to FELCO. If the tool is determined
to be counterfeit, FELCO will ship a
new, genuine FELCO tool back to the
customer at no charge. FGN
http://www.realfelco.com http://www.realfelco.com http://www.peachridge.com http://www.FruitGrowersNews.com
January 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January 2020
