Happiness Is a Warm Snowblower

By GWENDOLYN BOUNDS

Harsh winter weather and frugal consumer spending may have cast a pall on most retail sales, but one product is proving recession-resistant: the snowblower.

iStockphoto

A Snowthrower Smackdown

• Gwendolyn Bounds tests out some do-it-yourself electric and gas-powered snowblowers.
• 'So Easy, a Mom Can Use It': Marketing snowblowers and chainsaws to women Real Estate Blog

Across the country, manufacturers and retailers report robust sales -- and in some cases shortages -- of the do-it-yourself machines, many of which aren't inexpensive, running from a few hundred dollars to upward of $2,000. At Home Depot Inc., sales of the machines are up "high double digits" over last year, particularly among the heavier-duty big-ticket models. December storms were widespread and powerful enough that Lowe's Cos. for the first time shipped truckloads of snowblowers to the state of Washington the same day it sent them to Michigan and Maine. One major manufacturer, Ariens Co. of Brillion, Wis., was hamstrung by broader economic woes when its main engine supplier halted production in mid-December; while Ariens had already increased production 25%, demand has skyrocketed 50%.

Helping spur sales: a series of intense storms during December, which moved across the western, central and northern states, breaking more than 2,000 daily snowfall records, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

And while snowblower sales typically wind down by January's close, Toro Co. of Bloomington, Minn., is actually going back into production this week. That could give an end-of-winter boost to retailers such as Norfolk Power Equipment Inc. in Wrentham, Mass., which is sold out of Toros and Hondas. Likewise for Esch Power Equipment in Oak Creek, Wis., where it has been a record year with sales in the month of October four times as high as in the same month last year.

"The economy hasn't affected sales at all," says Esch President Kevin Mifflin. "Money is not an object when people want to get out of their driveway."

The resilience of the humble snowblower underscores some fundamental realities about where consumer dollars go in tight times. For starters, with the unemployment rate at a 16-year high, it's a survival tool helping people get to work on time. More and more, homeowners are doing the math and figuring a machine can pay for itself after a few bad winters using a professional plower at $35 plus a pop. What's more, at a time when stock portfolios and jobs are riddled with uncertainty, just having a snowblower in the garage gives consumers a modicum of control over their daily destinies.

"People are tired of waiting for the plow guy to show up," says Fred Noonan, general manager for Norfolk Power Equipment. "Most consumers are on the low end of the plow list because the pros are doing parking lots where the big money is."

Jennifer Arnold and her husband, a night-shift police officer in Kenosha, Wis., bought a compact Ariens snowblower that Esch retails for $949 at Christmastime this year. "You swallow hard to make that much of an investment," says Ms. Arnold, who is a pastor. "But my husband comes home at 6:15 a.m. and needs to get to bed, yet first he has to clear out the driveway so I can go to work. This makes it quicker than with a shovel." The Arnolds were lucky to score the Ariens unit at all; the retailer that sold them their unit, Esch, started the season with 75 and had only three by the time they made a purchase.

Toro

The Toro "Power Clear" features self-propel, electric start and anticlogging technology.

The snowblower -- often called a snow thrower -- also is benefiting from more user-friendly designs that have evolved in recent years. Like chainsaw makers who've courted women and those fellows not of the Paul Bunyan persuasion, snowblower manufacturers have padded their lineups with items ranging from modest electric snow shovels that plug in and hurl snow 20 feet to lightweight "single-stage" gasoline models that shoot snow upward of 1,500 lbs. per minute. Sales of the "Snow Joe" electric shovel are up 81% over last year, according to Edison, N.J.-based Snow Joe Co., which first introduced its product in 2006. And Toro recently introduced a series of "Power Clear" single-stage snowblowers with self-propel and improved anticlogging technology.

But the surprise best-sellers of this season are the heartiest and priciest of models, known as "two-stage" because they add a fanlike impeller behind the main collection auger to help push out the snow. These styles, which can spit out more snow faster and in deeper conditions, are increasingly built more compact. They are also often tricked out with friendly electric-start functions (no yanking on a cord in sub-zero temps), heated hand-grips, headlights, power steering and cab enclosures to block the operator from the elements. Two-stage models are also best for gravel driveways because they don't typically pick up the stones.

MTD Products Inc. of Valley City, Ohio, says its Yard Machines brand has experienced "significant growth" this year in its compact two-stage machines, and says sales of snow-thrower attachments that fit onto riding lawn tractors also are selling "above expectations." Likewise MTD's Troy-Bilt brand's greatest sales increase has been with larger-sized snowblowers like its "Storm 2410." Sears Holdings Corp. is expecting strong demand through January of its Craftsman units, and has seen particularly robust demand for its middle-weight line of two-stage snowblowers.

Snow Joe

The $99 Snow Joe Plus thrower weighs 12 lbs. and promises to throw up to 300 lbs. per minute.

Indeed, Ms. Arnold tried out her family's new 160-lb. Ariens two-stage compact unit recently to clear their 30-foot-long driveway and 60 feet of sidewalk. "Once my husband showed me the controls, it was very simple. I actually enjoy using it," she said.

In good or bad economic times, emotion plays a large role in snowblower buying, as it does with generators. The amount of snowfall during a previous winter, and consumers' memories of getting stuck at home or straining their backs shoveling out, often dictates the following year's purchases.

The record period on file for snowblower shipments came after back-to-back blizzards in January and February 1978 struck Ohio and the Midwest and then New England and New York City, leading to widespread havoc and death among trapped commuters. Some 2.6 million units were shipped the following two seasons following the storms, according to the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute, because manufacturers predicted nervous consumers would buy early and in droves. That's the most since the group began tracking the data in 1970.

"You hate to say you're benefiting at people's expense, but the storms and hurricanes drive product sales," says Kris Kiser, executive vice president of the institute.

Still, the typically wild gyrations of consumer spending can make inventory control tough for manufacturers. If a winter starts off unexpectedly warm and mild, that can temper people's resolutions to buy and retailers and distributors can be left holding a pile of dead inventory hogging space needed for spring's lawn mowers and tractors. Even if a late winter storm hits, people often "think they can suck it up and use a shovel," says Christine Cheng, Toro's snow marketing manager. "It's a very tricky business to predict."

MTD Products

This compact two-stage model from Yard Machines costs $499 and has a 22-inch clearing width.

This year, the stars have aligned both because of last winter's storms and a confluence of early snowfalls this year, particularly around Christmas. Around New Year's, headlines from Idaho and Washington warned of retailers selling out early of snowblower stock. Mr. Noonan at Norfolk Power Equipment says he started moving blowers in August when Massachusetts held a "sales tax holiday weekend." At Home Depot, customers began lugging units home in earnest during September and October, says Kevin Houlihan, divisional merchandise manager for the retailer. Mr. Kiser of the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute predicts this year will be a "banner year" for snowblower sales.

Snowblowers' fortunes may portend good news for spring outdoor equipment sales. As the economy worsened last fall, Home Depot's Mr. Houlihan says he heard of more people cutting back on lawn services and tending to their grass and gardens themselves. The return to the do-it-yourself spirit, which waned in more robust times, could give a needed boost to sales of bigger-ticket items like lawn mowers, weed whackers and leaf blowers.

"People have to cut their lawn, even if it's just for neighborhood peer pressure," Mr. Houlihan says. "You can go a year without updating your appliances and carpet. But everyone sees the outside of your house."

Write to Gwendolyn Bounds at wendy.bounds@wsj.com