Barry Grant ** OUT OF BUSINESS**

[travmon]

More bad news for our country and hobby,,Barry Grant closed the doors at noon today.

[Swain]

I just heard that, I just sent a carb back there for repair what do you think is going to happen with that? Hopefully they may still be doing repairs and trying to make a few extra bucks.

[garickman]

Got this from Pro-Touring

Barry Grant Carburetors: 1985-2011
This just in from Barry Grant. We’re very disappointed to hear that a great company has hit hard times. We wish Barry and his crew the best, and if the automotive aftermarket has its druthers, we suspect BG will reemerge soon, some how and some way. Ironically, FordMuscle get’s this message just two days after finally landing an ad contract with BG (after about 10 years of trying.)

From Barry Grant
As of today, February 18, 2011 we are ceasing operations at our Dahlonega location and all subsidiary locations. Working with all of you has been the experience of a lifetime. I will value your support as friends, customers, vendors, and media contacts forever. The economic situation has put the company in the position of not being able to find working capital needed to continue operations and get a chapter 11 reorganization plan through the court. In addition to this, is that all of our equipment has been breaking down causing production delays and further hurting cash flow. Reluctantly now we must convert to chapter 7 liquidation after 26 years of business. The financial collapse has closed, or has caused severe restructuring of many companies in our industry. Many individuals have lost everything. We have even lost our home. This is the most humbling experience of my life, and I have no future plans at this point. Thank You for Your Many Years of Support.

[travmon]

I cant say it was all the economy that killed B.G....Alot of drag racers had given up on the company after one to many pump failures and the fact that he would not sell parts to rebuild theyre stuff, everything had to be sent in to be rebuilt. I know that pissed alot of racers off and made onetime customers out of them...and you know the deal, bad news travels fast and good news never seems to show up ..It sucks that we now have those people unemployed and any feed buisness's may go under as well.....To all you buisness owners out there, CUSTOMER SERVICE is the most important element of your buisness !

[travmon]

I just heard that, I just sent a carb back there for repair what do you think is going to happen with that? Hopefully they may still be doing repairs and trying to make a few extra bucks.

According to my sources everything getting sent back to customers and it is dependent on if it got fixed before noon today,,good luck , I just bought 2 demons for a customer and we are thinking of buying another for future parts .

[NOPANTS68]

I hate to hear about companies in the industry going under. It's not good for us and reduces the oppourtunity for creativity and innovation.

Having said that- we did tear apart a friend's brand new Demon 6 months ago only to find a broken drill bit in the metering block. He runs a Holley HP now.

[Sieg]

Owning a long-standing business and struggling for a couple years now, I am for the most part sympathetic to business owners challenges. Sadly, my personal experiences with BG due to the early 650 Speed Demons leaves me with little compassion. The poor performance of the product and arrogance of their techs during multiple calls insured I would never spend another dime with their company. What goes around comes around, regretefully at the expense of at least a few dedicated employees. :(

[Blake Foster]

I hate to hear about companies in the industry going under. It's not good for us and reduces the oppourtunity for creativity and innovation.

Having said that- we did tear apart a friend's brand new Demon 6 months ago only to find a broken drill bit in the metering block. He runs a Holley HP now.

Yep we used to use them as well, untill after about the third one, everytime you took one out of the box you had to completely disassemble it and clean all the machining chips out of them.

still not a good sign for the industry.

[wmhjr]

still not a good sign for the industry.

I find it hard to really apply this to the industry overall. IMHO, BG did themselves in with increasingly poor quality and service. OTOH, take a look at Pro Systems and some others who appear to be doing just fine. The difference isn't the industry or the segment. It's the quality and support. Maybe this is actually a good sign in some ways?

[Vegas69]

The information age likely caught up to them. I've heard very little good feedback since I stepped back into the hobby 5-6 years ago. I'll stick with my holley.

[214Chevy]

I truly hate that for him, his company and his employees. But, as they say....GOD don't like ugly!! :pushbutto

[rwhite692]

The information age likely caught up to them.


Todd this is spot-on...I think this is very true. In the "dark ages" a lot of companies could just kinda poke along with mediocre products and even some outright terrible and excellent products in their whole mix of offerings, offer spotty customer service, etc... and still survive...

Nowadays, no matter what industry you are in, if you are not one of the top two (maybe three) in your particular industry on competing products, you are just going to die, unless you can adapt, produce best or second best/ clearly slotted second tier product (features/quality/service), and communicate to your target market effectively....

[CMCResto.com]

BG has been going down hill big time for the last couple years. There is no way Barry lost his house. I know he still has a couple highly paid guys working on his pro stock program.....hmmmmm. I feel bad for the rest of the people who lost their jobs.

[Paladin]

as the cost and complexity of fuel injection continues to drop, why have a carb?? In fact, why have an iron block old school 350? You chevy guys can get an LS1/2/3 so reasonably, any new project would be crazy not to go that route.

Still,hate to see any american enterprise fail. There truly needs to be an Edelbrock mentality. Vic builds it right in the USA. Its good to support that.
Remember what Henry Ford said " I gotta pay my workers enough to buy my cars." That is lost nowadays with CEOs making 1000 times the average worker annual wage. Imagine how fast the unemploment rate would drop if CEOS made even 100times teh average worker (liek it was 25 years ago) and teh money was used to hire more workers. Rebuild the middle class I say.

[wmhjr]

Actually the unemployment rate would be totally unaffected if CEOs took no pay whatsoever. Fact. Pointing to CEO pay is an emotional, but flawed study in class envy. I'm not and never will be a CEO, and I'm not defending their compensation. However, the entire argument is incredibly poor and completely without any basis of fact.

You should also know that Vic also manufactures overseas. Not just in the USA.

[Paladin]

oh, i have plenty of facts. The sooner people wake up to the reality that the US is being destroyed by the gang on Wall st. the better.

spend a few hours on this webpage and you will get an incling of what is really going on instead of the b.s reported to you in main stream media

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/18-sobering-facts-which-prove-middle-class-not-being-included-%E2%80%9Ceconomic-recovery%E2%80%9D

[Fluid Power]

[QUOTE=Paladin;333774]as the cost and complexity of fuel injection continues to drop, why have a carb?? In fact, why have an iron block old school 350? You chevy guys can get an LS1/2/3 so reasonably, any new project would be crazy not to go that route.

I find your comment interesting. While it makes sense to have a comment on this site about full injection and LS1's, it seems completely disconnected from other sections of this hobby, hot rods/drag racers and probably others I am forgetting. I have several friends in these 'sections' of the hobby that would never mess with fuel injection. My hot rodding buddies love carbs, love the look and the simplicity of them. My drag racing buddies can tune them with a screw driver and plastic box of small parts in about 2 minutes. I have done some work at the Jeg's distribution center and the number 1 selling motor? The $1500 GM iron block 350 designed to replace any small block used from 73-85! You can buy it plain (w/o intake) or 2 other variations, both with carb set ups!

Darren

[GregWeld]

oh, i have plenty of facts. The sooner people wake up to the reality that the US is being destroyed by the gang on Wall st. the better.

spend a few hours on this webpage and you will get an incling of what is really going on instead of the b.s reported to you in main stream media

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/18-sobering-facts-which-prove-middle-class-not-being-included-%E2%80%9Ceconomic-recovery%E2%80%9D

This is NOT a political website. I'd keep those kinds of posts for some other board.

[wmhjr]

oh, i have plenty of facts. The sooner people wake up to the reality that the US is being destroyed by the gang on Wall st. the better.

spend a few hours on this webpage and you will get an incling of what is really going on instead of the b.s reported to you in main stream media

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/18-sobering-facts-which-prove-middle-class-not-being-included-%E2%80%9Ceconomic-recovery%E2%80%9D

Again, no disrespect intended, but I'd encourage you to take a course in logic. Let me be clear, I'm neither defending nor blaming CEOs and wall street. My opinions as to whether they deserve whatever pay are as meaningless as your. I'm simply saying that the idea that if CEOs didn't make so much then unemployment would be affected is pure, total nonsense. Bluntly, it is neither mathematically nor economically feasible in any way for this to be true. Moreover, there are many reasons for why we're here. Coorate mgmt is one. So is unskilled labor, global competition, labor unions, and you. I won't say more because it's a crazy conversation, and it's very unlikely that any minds will be changed.