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Friday, April 24, 2009 6:17 PM
EDT
Zippo
Festival off
By
Sandra Rhodes
Bradford Era
Officials at Zippo Manufacturing Co. have canceled the
inaugural Zippo Fest, citing a downturn in the economy.
Zippo
officials made the announcement Thursday morning. Zippo
Fest, which was touted as a music-themed event, was
planned for July 18.
“In
the past few weeks, we’ve noticed a softening in our
global sales,” said Mark Paup, vice president of sales and
marketing at Zippo. “This is expected to continue in May
and June.
Sales
had been 3 percent below the forecast. Then, a couple of
weeks ago, they started to fall off more.
After
looking at the economic prognosis, executive level Zippo
officials decided to be proactive and cancel the event,
Paup said.
“This
was not taken lightly. This is a major sales and marketing
expense,” he said, adding they knew the economy wasn’t
going to “turn around by tomorrow.”
Zippo
also usually has an event for collectors, but as Paup
pointed out, that won’t happen either.
“At
this point, it’s canceled. Everything is so tied together,
to hold one small component wouldn’t make sense.”
This
was to be the first music-themed event by Zippo, which has
held swap meets in the past. Paup added that Zippo wanted
to broaden the scope of the event to include music and
target the young adult male audience.
Zippo
and W.R. Case & Sons Cutlery, its subsidiary, have taken
turns sponsoring summer events. The next time Zippo is
scheduled to sponsor an event is 2011. And while the Zippo
Fest won’t occur this year, Paup said it’s too soon to
count out the event all together.
“We
are going to keep the playbook and hope to open it back up
in the near future,” he said, lauding the efforts of
Shirley Evers and Brent Tyler in planning the event.
Paup
said they waited until the 11th hour to cancel the event,
and then had to face the music.
“We
were ready to sign the contracts” with the bands, Paup
said. “It was either go or no go.”
While
the cancellation is a blow to Zippo, Paup acknowledged
that it could also hurt the community.
“It’s
an important event for Zippo fans and collectors,” he
said. “There’s a ripple effect. We are painfully aware of
that. There are vendors, suppliers. It hurts their
businesses.”
Main
Street Manager Anita Dolan said Thursday afternoon that
officials are tentatively still making plans for
Bradford’s annual event, usually called Summerfest, which
coincides with the Zippo event.
Bradford planners are calling the event Summer Daze, a
play off Autumn Daze that is held in the fall. She added
that more information will be forthcoming.
In the
meantime, Paup said the Zippo brand remains strong. Given
the current economic situation, businesses, including
Zippo, are cautious in their orders and inventory levels.
“We
want to tightly manage and allocate our marketing
resources for greater impact,” he said. “Our focus is on
driving sales and revenue growth for maximum return.”
All
other elements of Zippo’s marketing program this year will
remain as planned.
“We
are doing everything we can to have a strong and healthy
company moving forward.” |
