What's up with Lee Precision?

[jthyttin]

Hi, I tried to search on the subject but it's kind of counter-productive since 'lee' is too short/common a word and search function drops it from the query...

Anybody 'in the know' what's up with Lee Precision? They've been postponing orders for at least a year now, and it's getting worse all the time. They practically don't make custom stuff anymore. They're claiming to being overwhelmed by demand.

Is this true, or is there something else going on? I know they at least claim to have expanded a lot and hired new personnel. But the situation just gets worse. Currently I have problems even finding a US distributor who has common Lee products in stock.

 

[JRS]

Could have something to do with Lee being an American company competing against the Comm Chi crap some are so willing to buy here. In other words, they can't afford to continue as a business for much longer. It's a real shame. They have been a part of loading, shooting, and a great company with a long history in the US. Hard to compete with companies like RCBS. China manufactured goods through and through.

 

[Fred Bohl]

Juha Hyttinen

I live about 80.5 kilometers,50 miles) from the Lee Precision plant and have visited there most recently mid March. They are expanding the plant and staff and have been extremely busy this past year.

My personal impression is that they are struggling to handle the order backlog as are many suppliers to the US reloading market. I have myself waited as long as 7 months for a back-ordered Redding Instant Indicator but not longer than 5 weeks for a Lee Breech Lock Challenger Press and extra bushings.

John Lee has posted a message on the index page of their website Click Here that I tend to believe.

Other than direct purchases of 'seconds',dents and/or dings) at the factory, I get the best prices and delivery from Factory Sales Click Here but I don't know if they sell or ship to Finland.

 

[hoosiergc]

On my distributors website it seems that the Lee products are disappearing. Really hard to get anything now. They are certainly caught up in the craziness as everyone else is.

www.m1buddy.com

 

[JRS]

I truly hope you are correct Fred!

 

[Fred Bohl]

Richard Stiefel,

A little background is in order here to put perspective on the opinions I will be offering later. I've only met John Lee, the current president of Lee Precision, once but 'back in the day' I was fortunate to have had many discussions on the design concepts favored by his father Richard with Richard. In my early years of reloading I used many Lee products mostly because they were functional and affordable. I also tended to try to use products that are both 'made in the USA' and if possible made nearby. Now that I'm both more knowledgeable and better able to afford the best I buy based on what I feel has the best performance potential for my purposes. For some basic functions I still buy and recommend Lee products.

On to those opinions:

Most of the suppliers to the reloading market are surprisingly small companies or at least the reloading products are small part of there overall business. Therefore any rapid increase in demand requires significant capital expenditures and training costs for additional staff.

We are in the middle of an extraordinary boom in demand. This is coupled to a long term tendency for so-called distributors to have little or no inventory and only act as order processors for a direct-ship business model.

To these we now have added the lack of liquid working capital due to the depression precipitated by a failed financial sector. This cripples the capability of the manufacture to buy added or new equipment and tooling and the distributor/retailer from buying product to replenish the empty inventory.

If I were in the position John Lee is in I would be seriously concerned that while we have a sharp increase in end user demand after a long dry spell we have an empty supply pipe-line and by the time we can ramp-up production rates the demand may evaporate due to the long wait frustrations. If this happens then the production ramp-up cost could bury the business in debt if the demand evaporates.

While on my soapbox:

There has been a great deal of harsh criticism expressed on this site about Lee Collet Dies,$26 List Price) and I have used several without problems. But nothing but glowing praise for the Whidden Pointing Die System,$210 List Price) which I have and find to be very good indeed. I think this dichotomy of opinions implies unreal expectations and an unfair comparison that in the end will confuse a newcomer to reloading.

 

[JRS]

Well written, well taken, and above all, very true. Your candor should be taken seriously by everyone. The most I could hope for, is for each and everyone of us to frequent Lee Precision. This is one of the last, and quality oriented companies 'made in America' that we have. I for one will continue to spend my hard earned money with this quality company.

 

[jthyttin]

Fred, thanks for the info!