Since I’m in adding another example mode this week…
The latest issue of Collectible Auto has an article on Kissel, an example of the smart niche switch. I’d heard of Kissel Kars but wasn’t aware of their niche switch and second life.
Kissel was founded in 1909 in Hartford, Wisconsin. Hartford is a smallish city not far from the Milwaukee-Kenosha-Chicago metro area, so it doesn’t qualify as an outlier. Kissel never made the killer mistake of trying to compete with Ford. They stuck with their specialty, long low fast cars in the Step-up price range. Kissel prospered in a moderate way until 1929. At that point Archie Andrews, the universal raider and scavenger, bankrupted them with a fake merger.
BUT: Kissel pulled away from Andrews. At first they tried alliances with other independents, which failed. In 1935 they switched to outboard motors, first with a contract for Sears, then as a division of West Bend in a nearby city. After a few more mergers they finally halted in 1986. Hartford now has a museum devoted to Kissel and related topics.
1935 to 1986 is a LONG second life. Most of the niches were broken in the ’70s.
Polistra's Mill 