News came in last week about layoffs at Bosch USA.
In a comment, a reader told us:
Bosch is done for in the US market. Apparently the entirety of their US-based engineering team has been laid off effective 12/31/24.
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We asked for more details, and they said:
All engineering projects have been shifted to China or back in Germany. All product development and safety/testing has been eliminated in US.
Bosch recently announced plans to eliminate thousands of jobs globally, citing challenges in the automotive sector, but this was the first we’ve heard about layoffs at Bosch’s power tools and accessories business in the USA.
I asked Bosch US if they could confirm the rumors and comment about the matter. I also asked about how many jobs are affected, and if other layoffs are coming. (I gave them a short window to comment, and appreciate the prompt reply.)
A Bosch Power Tools Spokesperson said:
To increase competitiveness and collaboration, Bosch Power Tools aligned select activities in the field of Product Management and Quality Management. Therefore, these functions are bundled at existing locations with similar areas of responsibility.
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We helped support those impacted during this transition and have successfully placed individuals in other roles in the company.
North America is a significant market for Bosch and we are committed to furthering the growth of the region. Bosch Power Tools continuously evaluates and optimizes its organizational structures and processes to ensure long-term competitiveness.
Separately, Bosch’s North American power tools division, in concert with other Bosch USA divisions, has announced that they have purchased advertising that will air during the upcoming “Big Game” on February, 9, 2025.
Super Bowl LIX is scheduled for February 9, 2025. According to NPR, a 30-second Super Bowl ad spot costs approximately $7 million.
The official announcement says:
For the first time in our company’s history, at CES we announced Bosch will be advertising at the Big Game on February 9!
Bosch recently used a “Like a Bosch” tagline in their recent Holiday tool promo displays, and apparently the slogan is part of an ongoing global advertising campaign.
Readers remarked that Bosch’s recent tool promos at Lowe’s looked to feature the likeliness of the late Macho Man Randy Savage.
That 6 different Bosch USA social media accounts – including for their power tools and accessory business – jointly announced their “Big Game” ad buy, perhaps Bosch is looking to build upon their “Like a Bosch” marketing here.
It is difficult for me to understand how Bosch USA can cut jobs and then announce they’ve spent money on “Big Game” [Super Bowl] advertising, but perhaps their strategy will make sense in time.
It remains to be seen what else the increased collaboration between Bosch’s different business segments will bring.
Here’s a taste of “Like a Bosch”:
Eric
That’s how you say we laid off a bunch of people without actually saying it.
Jason M
A lot of fancy words to say yes we laid off North America.
Unfortunately it does make sense but the timing of the Super Bowl ad is tough. $7M means 70 employees salary for the year at $100k.
mp
The real cost of an employee with an advertised salary of $100k is probably closer to $200k (taxes, benefits, implied management layers, space/equipment)
Not that it really changes your point.
Bob
Like most companies they will always protect native jobs. I work for a decent size Swiss company with most production in Germany. Germany is hurting worse than the news says. If it were not for ITAR laws, they would move all production back to Germany in a heartbeat. German’s are incredibly proud and are becoming increasingly protectionist of the manufacturing and engineering jobs. They also really do not think highly of US engineering compared to Swiss/German
engineers.
Collin
I’m always so confused by this imagined self superiority of Swiss/German engineers. All engineers use the more or less the same software and have had the same education (roughly). What exactly is worse about US engineers?
Ken
I’m curious just how much engineering talent Bosch employed in the US. I actually didn’t know that they did any US-based engineering until I heard about the upcoming modular tool storage which was apparently designed in the US. If Bosch does substantial engineering in the US, why are so many of their tools not released here, or released in the US much later than in the EU (sometimes by years)?
MM
Last night I was served a very strange “like a bosch” ad at the beginning of a Youtube video. All it did was confuse me. I couldn’t tell you what kind of product it was advertising, and if I hadn’t already read about the ad campaign here I would have had no idea it was for Bosch either.
Scott K
The one linked in the post is also very confusing to me. I think this is all about name recognition rather than specific product lines or technologies.
Jerry
I think the ad is to ‘grab your attention’ more than inform.
I will also go out on a limb here, and say that it was dreamed up by someone or some ones fairly fresh out of college that are schooled in how to grab your attention, but I’m not sure they know their audience all that well. Power tools are not like fashionable clothes where you make sales on brand recognition so much as sold on performance/quality/value. Bosch has a small market share when compared with red or yellow (at least around here) and they need to explain why I should jump to their platform, not just repeat their name over and over. Power tools are not what I would call an impulse buy, and I have no idea what the ad above does except repeat a catchphrase and link it to a little computer chip. For all I know it could be an exercise video. Repeating a catch phrase may sell baby back ribs (come on, I know you have ‘I want my baby back, I want my baby back, I want my baby back ribs’ is going through your head) but I don’t see it selling power tools.
Aram
Bosch management genuinely seems dysfunctional — all of the advertising and product positioning I’ve seen from them over the past few years has been utterly cringeworthy. The tools themselves are reasonable but the market strategies seem to have been developed by someone several days into a bender.
Robert
Pulling out design and engineering from an area is certainly a partial give up. Having them in a country gives a better understanding of what features are desired in that country. I suspect Bosch’s Super Bowl ad is going to be scored as one of the poorer ads. I. Wonder if Bosch is aware Super Bowl ads get evaluated more than ads in other media.
Mark. M
I can’t help but wonder if the super-cringe “Like a Bosch” tagline/campaign is genuinely trying to appeal to a certain demographic, or if it’s just someone’s pet project. My gut tells me it’s the latter. Whoever is running the show…well, good luck.
A W
It’s definitely targeted. The ad opens on a gen Z mustache which has been popular since the release of Top Gun Maverick.
Stephen Roy
It sounds terrible, they will lose business being that the ads are so bad,
Saulac
Cut jobs and spend more on ads is a common strategy. For those confused by the ads, have you ever seen a Nike ads? Do those ads show any products? As long as people remember the Bosch name, they will go hunting for it next time they are in any store for anything.
MM
The reason why I was confused by the “like a bosch” ad I saw, is that it didn’t make the word “bosch” clear. I heard the audio as “boss”, and there was no Bosch logo or obvious product in the ad for me to connect to the brand. I only knew what it was because I read about the ad campaign in advance–in other words, dumb luck.
I’ve seen Nike (and other) ads that don’t show products, but they at least make the brand name or their logo obvious in the ad. The ad I saw did not do a good job getting across the bosch branding. If I hadn’t happened to read a toolguyd article about the ad campaign first I’d have had no idea what brand that ad was meant to advertise.
Mark. M
Mmmm, not sure about “go hunting for it”. If we played the word association game with Nike ads, my reply would be “fit athletes” and “inspirational”. Which is super subjective, but that’s how they have managed to connect to my brain. The same game with this Bosch campaign: “Weird” and “Silly”. If their goal is to be talked about as a cringey brand, mission accomplished? If their goal is to sell tools, I think they need a new ad agency.
bob
Bosch has nowhere near the brand awareness that Nike does, at this point Nike can afford to be “creative” in their advertising.
I dont think many super bowl viewers will actually know that Bosch just laid off thier American employees.
Brian
Welp. I guess I just quit buying Bosch stuff.
James
Dunno how I feel. Been feeling better and better about my Bosch tools bs my Milwaukee tools lately and been buying whichever is higher rated but with a leaning towards Bosch because of durability.
I think the weird marketing has me more nervous than the laying off of US engineers. As someone said above it seems like a pet project of an exec who thinks they’re funny…
Coach James
The nicest thing I can say about that “Like A Bosch” YouTube ad is that it would not entice me to buy anything from Bosch.
G G
Didn’t they release that movie, ‘Dead Wrestler’s Society?’ (Tagline: Oh, Bosch, my Bosch!)
JimM
Finally, we get more of that excellent Chinese engineering we’ve all been waiting for
Rx9
Lol, can’t wait for the rotary hammer with a battery pack that doubles as an incendiary grenade.
Mike+I
So, they laid off a bunch of Amerocan workers and will now spend millions on a Superbowl ad to tout how patriotic they are. Sadl but typical. I’ll stick with Milwaukee.
Rx9
Of all the positions to cut, they should have gotten rid of the marketing team first, especially with the cringey crap they put out.
I bet the marketing team is staffed full of nepo-babies and their “besties” from college.
Jim Felt
I’m actually thinking their NA “marketing team” is actually comprised of their after sale call center staff during lunch breaks.
Especially considering how nice those folks are.
Just not the right skill set for decent national ad creation and execution.
JR Ramos
They alluded during the Sept.-Nov. period of last year that tool group employees would be part of the cuts. All the attention was on automotive but they did say to a couple of (euro) outlets that it would affect others as well.
What was surprising to me is that some of these engineering roles will be absorbed by current German counterparts but some are going to be in China. I know they have a large presence in China but I didn’t think engineering proper was a part of their operations there. I don’t think the engineers here had much input anyway…they’re still a strongly home-base-governed company and those folks in Germany make all the calls and decisions. I’m curious whether sales/distribution/admin roles in the US will also suffer some cuts of if those are safe for now as a more core operation role.
German humor and excitement is interesting. I always found it kind of funny how strongly they latched on to American West and Native American movies and lore – it’s still big over there (bigger than it is here, now). And heavy metal. I think this nutty marketing over the years is just that flavor of humor that is different than ours…not a great choice at any rate and it does maybe take away from a professional/premium image for many people. But that said, back in the day Makita was pretty bad, too, as are/were a host of small time US tool manufacturers (largely automotive products but across the board as I recall). Between the marketing and the image/influence/craptastic partner of Lowe’s, I think Bosch really should change the approach.
Matt_T
I don’t see this really impacting Bosch branded tools. Might delay, or speed up, getting new products released over here. Took a look at a couple 18V tools and they do have CSA markings. Something NA engineering may have been responsible for.
I suspect this will mostly affect the Bosch owned North American brands. CST/Berger, Dremel and Vermont American come to mind.
Paul
What does it mean “challenges in the automotive sector”?
Stuart
Bosch is a very large company with a very big business in the automotive parts and components market.
Developments in the auto industry haven’t been kind to them, resulting in layoffs, adjustments to worker hours, and similar.
They could be looking to boost their other business segments in other regions to make up for it.
Robert
Germany just had a lot of drama over Volkswagen feeling it needed to shut down excess capacity and unions and politicians opposing that. I tried to state that fairly.
DRT42
It means Bosch laid off 5000 people. Bosch makes alternators, starters, electric power steering, anti-lock brakes, chassis control modules, etc. I spent 40 years in automotive, and the whole segment is struggling. It’s not just Bosch, it’s everybody. I do not know of a company that has not had layoffs. Frankly, I expect two of my best friends to be laid off this month. Maybe. We’ll see.
Why?
A. I for one am not rushing out to buy an $80,000 pickup.
B. On the other hand, nobody seems willing to buy a vehicle with quality parts. I rented a full size SUV in December, on vacation. The steering was the biggest piece of **** I have ever driven. I cannot think of a car from the 1980s that steers worse. 25,000 miles on the odo. I made a point of complaining to my laid-off ex-Bosch steering engineer, and guess what he said? Oh yeah, those guys only buy cheap parts.
C. There you have it. Overpriced POS, and nobody is buying. So people in the automotive field are laid off.
Mopar4wd
They are also having issues with some of their EV products not producing the volume they thought along with a couple of their larger electric motor customers dropping them for either in house or other cheaper solotions after Bosch spent money on infastructure to make EV motors.
JP
Bosch is the biggest supplier parts for auto industry in the world, and is their biggest market, when a name like VW has problems is only a matter of time to hit all the supply chain.
They will be more than fine lol, i work for a top 10 supplier auto parts this is just a slap in the hand for bosch, wish the best for the people who were affect with layoffs they have some truly smart people salute 👍
Sorry for some mistake with my words, its not my main language.
Frank D
They could have done so much more in the past 10 years when it comes to brand recognition, NA tool selection, store presence, …
Sure, it would not fix whatever may have been going on in the automotive branch(es) and whatever happened in the rest of the world for the past few years, and what impacts companies may be bracing for … but it may have helped a tick.
A W
Bosch engineers helped VW develop a way to cheat emissions regulations. VW was doing really well at the time, but when the scandal came to light, it cost VW tens of billions of dollars (Google “dieselgate cost”).
With the supply chain disruptions of the pandemic, and an emerging Chinese auto industry, VW is no longer growing rapidly.
PW
This whole marketing plan sounds like some marketing boss is running amuck. Using a (14 year old) dead guy as your front man? Someone guys starting out in the trades probably don’t even remember?
And I really question the wisdom of putting a giant pile into a superb owl ad. It’s not just the $7 million for the spot – you also need to pay for top-flight creative work or you’re just wasting your moment in the limelight.
So let’s say your total costs are around 8 figures. That buys you a pretty significant promo write-down for Father’s Day. Maybe that 10 mil could instead get you tens of thousands of new customers in your battery system that will come back to the trough in the future. Maybe instead of questionable “brand recognition” among a zillion people who are never going to spend more than whatever a house brand costs on power tools?
I think Bosch’s marketing problem is that I never see them really pop up in any context, anywhere. Store endcaps, seasonal promotions, youtube content… I think smaller, smarter, and more consistent efforts would be better than going out of NA with a bang. Which is what seems to be happening.
Scott K
I think there may be a misunderstanding regarding their Super Bowl ad. My initial assumption after reading this post (maybe not carefully enough) is that there was a connection between the huge expenditure of a Super Bowl ad timed near a series of layoffs. I’m not convinced this is a “Bosch Tools” ad but rather a Bosch ad. Bosch tools may have laid off a lot of US based employees, but they have a great reputation in the appliance market and this could be a push to add another layer of name recognition for those products. They make sensors for many types of products, recently purchased a branch of Johnson Controls, and are making a push in AI.
The layoffs are definitely disappointing, but the Super Bowl ad could be a reallocation of budgeted ad money that would have been spent in other ways.
https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/bosch-super-bowl-59-droga5/
PW
That’s a good point, I was assuming from the context that Bosch would be advertising power tools in the Super Bowl.
But something like appliances makes a lot more sense. Everyone watching the super bowl is a potential buyer for those, and raising generic “brand awareness” makes sense for that kind of item.
Amatts
Marketing pffft
Andrew
I’ll pre-empt this by saying I’m not affiliated to Bosch…
They have been in the USA for more than a century (a physical presence, starting in MA). They are a global industrial giant, with a strong history in automotive, e.g common rail injection.
They cover everything from power tools to autonomous driving.
The backdrop: the global automotive industry is facing profound challenges in the transition to electric vehicles, coupled with the rising supremacy of China in many industrial segments.
Naturally, Bosch’s fortunes are still tied heavily to the automotive market, which is taking a pounding (see the recent proposal to close a German VW plant for the first time ever).
I haven’t looked, but I would expect the Bosch power tool contribution is a relatively small part of their portfolio.
It’s important to look at the big picture on this topic. To reiterate what I said in a previous post, their #likeABosch is a company wide global campaign. It was just covered at CES for example in Las Vegas, covering their huge (and expensive) presence, with key themes of autonomous driving and automation.
This is not the sort of company that just ‘let’s an intern come up with an advertising campaign’ (paraphrasing what someone said above).
Andrew
Power tools account for approximately 4% of their revenue, for context.
Consolidation on the quality and and product functions (of a small part of their portfolio) is a very small part of their overall footprint, in terms of employees. This doesn’t mean it’s not painful for those directly affected of course
Bear in mind that the vast majority of their revenue is generated in the B2B rather than B2C category: the end of the tail does not represent the whole of the dog.
Steven Phillips
I can tell you this, I’m simply still not interested in their tools because they still seem uninterested in North America. This only reinforces that.
Jim
That’s unfortunate.
I understand that businesses have to make decisions, but since I’m an engineer, engineering layoffs hit a little closer to home. I won’t be buying any of their products.
Joe
Yup, Bosch just fired most of their field sales guys too. The ones going into Lowe’s selling their power tools. Guess they wanted to clear the way for Ad spending! My neighbor was with them for a few years until this week.
Terry S
Bosch’s corporate structure is unlike any other I know of in the power tool of automotive OEM supplier world. The vast majority of shares (I have seen anywhere from 92% to 98%) are owned by the Robert Bosch Foundation, which is the biggest such organization in Germany and among the biggest in Europe.
They company pours a ton back into R&D and profits are largely funneled to the foundation, which has no voting rights. Robert Bosch was also almost unique among German business leaders in not becoming a member of he Nazi party, though his factories did produce war materiel. Likewise, he and his company were recognized by the Nazis for their efforts.
None of the above means they make good decisions, but the motivation might be different from other companies at times.
Also, they own Dremel, Vermont American (are any VA tools still made in the USA?), Freud, Diablo, etc, which has been covered on this site previously.