Will Whites go the way of Tesoro?

[Terry Soloman]

This has become a great thread! Thank you ALL for contributing!

 

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[cactusman]

Sadly I saw the handwriting on wall for Tesoro, as no matter how good their machines are, most buyers are looking for more bells and whistles, mainly in the form of digital displays. It's especially sad for me, as they are an Arizona company.

As for Minelab, Garrett, Fisher, and Whites, I would say that Minelab will continue to grab a lot of the market, as they are trying to get new users into the hobby with their Go Find machines and then transition them into their higher end models, and of course they have the lions share of the PI gold machines.

Garrett may be where Minelab figured out to get some entry level machines to hook new users, as the Ace series for Garrett has been and continues to be a staple. Garrett took MD'ing to a new level with mid-priced machines that are waterproof and are great performers. Everyone else had to play catch up. Their security detectors from handheld to walk-through will keep them going no matter what happens. And let's face it, that's probably where the idea for the pin-pointer that we can't live without came from; security wands.

Fisher, they produce great machines and since they are owned by First Texas Products, you can add in Teknetics, and Bounty Hunter. I think they should consider labeling Bounty Hunters as Fishers to keep brand loyalty to new users who start out with those.

White's is the wild card, as their products do seem to have slowed down, but maybe they are just working behind the scenes on new machines. I hope they don't go the way of Tesoro, as we don't need to see another US owned company go under, especially during a "good economy." And hopefully someone will buy out and bring back Tesoro.

 

[Slowtaknow]

If it looks like one starts to go under, i hope they sell to another American company to strengthen it and retain old customers. Even if all we have left is fisher, it would be stronger using all the tech and service base of the others.