After reviewing the manufacturing news from this week, “Manufacturing’s Winner & Loser” have been decided. This week, two companies take the spotlight. While one has been on the receiving end of some great news, the other is being faced with a brand new counterfeiting struggle.
Winner
Lipsmark LLC, the manufacturers of Palcohol — a powdered alcohol product — are the winner as Palchol received the nod of approval from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau for sale.
This approval has been hard earned. Last year the Bureau briefly approved the product only to back track and claim that the label approvals were a mistake. But according to Tom Hogue, the Bureau spokesman, the issues were resolved for a variety of the powered alcohol flavors and have been approved for sale.
Though the federal stamp of approval does not negate states legislation in some states, that prohibit the sale of the product, it is still a victory for Lipsmark LLC. According to the Palcohol website, founder Mark Phillips acknowledges the approval from the Bureau and hopes to have the product for sale this summer.
Loser
Apple has been having a good week, but there is one serious setback that came to the world’s attention that has earned them the losing nod this week. Only a few days after it was unveiled, the Apple Watch is already being copied and sold by Chinese vendors.
This has got to be quite frustrating for Apple. The fake watches copied Apple’s design, using ads from Chinese e-commerce websites as templates. However, the knockoffs are being run on Android software instead of Apple software.
What is really threatening about these knockoff watches are their price tag. They are significantly less expensive than their real Apple counterpart. For example, the Apple Watch starts at approximately $349 while one of the knockoffs that appeared on Alibaba was sold for $45.
