Badge Engineering?

[Portzy]

Many years ago my dad explained to me the term "badge engineering". He did it by looking at various Mk's of AH Sprites and MG Midgets pointing out the the MK2 Sprite was to all intents a MK1 Midget but with slightly different exterior styling and of course, badges.

Having owned a few of each I would say that, other than fair wear and tear between each, they were in fact the same cars just badged and marketed as either Austin or MG.

This brings me to the subject of pellets and the mainstream manufacturers such as H&N, JSB, RWS etc. Looking at H&N, it would seem that pellets sold as Bisley, Remington, Diana, and a few other not so mainstream pellet brands are simply re-badged H&N's. Air Arms and Falcon Accuracy Plus appear to be JSB. Not sure about RWS, maybe they dont "badge"

So, I suppose what I'm getting round to is, are these "badged" pellets in any way inferior? You know, come from old molds, rejects, seconds? I'm guessing not purely because they would soon be sussed out and get a bad rep.

[Artfull-Bodger]

As you could imagine there are a limited number of pellet manufacturers, and gun manufacturers are not going to make their own when they can have them made by the specialists.

If I understand it correctly the gun companies own the rights to a set of dies their pellets are made off, they will be the same design but off their own dies (Falcon Accuracy being JSB RS for instance)

Quality control standards are usually stipulated by the customer , I find Falcons to be very good, I also keep several tins of Webley Mosquito (JSB Express) from 2008 which produce the best groups in my Hw100 of any pellet.

So from my experience branded pellets are not inferior to JSB branded products.

[bighit]

its also possibly the only way the importer will bring other makers pellets in. we wont import yours with your name but we will if OUR name was on them .

[Geezer]

As you could imagine there are a limited number of pellet manufacturers, and gun manufacturers are not going to make their own when they can have them made by the specialists.

If I understand it correctly the gun companies own the rights to a set of dies their pellets are made off, they will be the same design but off their own dies (Falcon Accuracy being JSB RS for instance)

Quality control standards are usually stipulated by the customer , I find Falcons to be very good, I also keep several tins of Webley Mosquito (JSB Express) from 2008 which produce the best groups in my Hw100 of any pellet.

So from my experience branded pellets are not inferior to JSB branded products.

That's my understanding/experience too.

It's been going on for years. There was, I think, a point in the 80s, when Eley Wasps were also BSA Pylarms, and probably also Webley GPs. And "Beeman" pellets were a combination of H&Ns and Japanese Mount Stars.

It has also happened for years with guns. How many people know that, even before Webley became a brand name for Turkish and Indonesian guns, they at various times sold rifles under their brand made by Milbro, Diana, Erma, Norica, FX, and somewhere in China, even when they had a factory here and made their own genuine Birmingham Webleys?

The Austin-Healey example is only the tip of the iceberg in cars. For a couple of decades BLMC would sell you the same basic car as an Austin, Morris, Wolseley, Riley, MG, or Van Den Plas. Which may in part explain the demise of the British car industry (that and that the cars were mostly pretty rubbish).

[angrybear]

its also possibly the only way the importer will bring other makers pellets in. we wont import yours with your name but we will if OUR name was on them .

^^ This is very often the case, H&N are German, so in the post war era putting a good British shooting name like Bisley on to their pellets might have got them in to a market that would not buy German,
JSB are "Eastern European" which did not have a good reputation for quality so badge them as "British" & watch them fly off the shelf !
there might also be tax or customs benefits by having a company registered in the importing country, plus some people will only buy a pellet that carries the same brand as the rifle thinking they must match.

In the USA loads of European made shooting stuff is branded as "Beeman" so the buyer might think it's American made rather than "foreign".

[hmangphilly]

In the USA loads of European made shooting stuff is branded as "Beeman" so the buyer might think it's American made rather than "foreign".

like what we do with Vauxhall cars

[Portzy]

That's confirmed what I imagined to be the case, thanks, no harm in buying a few of these not so headline brands methinks