FR Jones

[PeteB]

To be a good capitalist, you have to make money. That also takes into account other factors like, folk paying you on time and your supply chain getting you the goods. These recent times have meant that some suppliers are unable to deliver, their costs have risen exponentially and it seems that tree work is a tad scare now that furlough schemes, interest rates and competition is tough!

 

Sad to hear of their plight and good luck to those in the food chain who are looking at a personal loss. 

[rapalaman]

Sorry to see them go as had spent a fair few quid with them. Luckily I’m only about £35 down as after chasing they had delivered all but one item 2 weeks ago from an order I placed early April. Paid via PayPal so will try to claim back from them when I get a few minutes spare

[Stihl38]

Website has insolvency all over it so looks like they have gone into administration.

 

[Whoppa Choppa]

9 hours ago, Peasgood said:

They had started taking orders for stuff they hadn't got. That pissed me off enough to go elsewhere, no point saying you have something in stock and then not delivering for a fortnight because you'd lied.

Still, sorry to see them go and sorry for those caught up in it all.

Exactly the same happened to Abbey Garden Machinery in Devon.

[NJA]

15 hours ago, pleasant said:

Last set of accounts for them made up to and including 31st December 2021 show a LOSS of £711,214.00 for the year. Previous year was another loss of £56,039.00.

 

You sell stuff (particularly Stihl) for little more than just above cost to under cut other long standing reputable businesses to put them out of business, then you need to sell a LOT of kit.......otherwise you will go out of business yourself.

 

Jones were selling Stihl stuff cheaper than I could buy it from Stihl.....simply because they would buy a pallet at a time and stack them high and sell them cheap. Even though Stihl said discounts were frowned upon and to only collect in person.....assembled and demonstrated. Yet they turned a blind eye in return for volume sales.

 

(I'm not bitter..much. However, I'm still trading.)

This is so true.  Think most other dealers hated them but from customers point of view they had great website, great prices and pretty good customer service.

But you bulk buy high value items like saws, and throw them out at low margins you need a lot of cash to buy the next lot (when you've taken out operating expences you haven't got much left). So you borrow to buy the next lot... then interest rates go up to more than the profit you're making, so you borrow more, to buy more, to sell more but it multiplies the problem. 

This is how I see it, so probably not surprising they've gone bust?

 

[Stere]

Quote

Planet X,

 

Are you sure   as website looks normal?

 

There nice merino socks have being out of stock for yrs though. They used to be £1  a pair on offer  - bargin. Should of bought a few 100 pairs enough to last a lifetime .....

 

There used to be some real good bargin offers on planet X especially when they bought up job lots cheap stock from euro bankrupt companies  etc. But they  haven't had  very many  good bargins in the last few yrs just mostly average generic stuff.

 

Id say very  few real bargins since covid and brexit generally  from any online retailers ....

 

[pleasant]

1 hour ago, NJA said:

This is so true.  Think most other dealers hated them but from customers point of view they had great website, great prices and pretty good customer service.

But you bulk buy high value items like saws, and throw them out at low margins you need a lot of cash to buy the next lot (when you've taken out operating expences you haven't got much left). So you borrow to buy the next lot... then interest rates go up to more than the profit you're making, so you borrow more, to buy more, to sell more but it multiplies the problem. 

This is how I see it, so probably not surprising they've gone bust?

 

True. When you see fr jones selling stihl stuff with 30+% off rrp, it give the impression that every dealer is buying from stihl with a 50 or 60% discount to allow them to sell at those prices and still sell at a profit and pay for good after sales service. The fact is, they admittedly were buying in bulk from stihl to get the best price, but even so they would have been working on a profit margin of around 10% which has proved to be unsustainable.

 

Unfortunately price seems to be the over riding buying decision for most customers, and they forget all the other parts of purchasing from a dealership needs to be paid for out of that margin such as aftersales support etc.

 

We made a decision several years ago to focus mainly on the private consumer who appreciate a quality product, who want good service and have a realistic budget. This has worked well for us as although if asked we may well offer a small discount, but we can actually make more profit out of selling two machines to a private customer than selling a pallet to the trade at stupid prices.

 

And a lot less hassle.

 

[GarethM]

We're all guilty of looking around for the best deal, within reason and end up buying from high volume places.

 

But @pleasant, would you also say you pick up the repairs & service works ?.

 

Like a new car, you have to go to a main dealership. Loyalty soon disappears when it comes to service and you go to the local guy until it's not cost effective and the cycle starts all over again.

 

[openspaceman]

11 minutes ago, pleasant said:

Unfortunately price seems to be the over riding buying decision for most customers,

When I was buying saws for my own work I found I almost never needed any warranty or service work from a dealer. Even later when I bought for the firm, and used the local dealer, when a warranty claim or repair was needed I found it often necessary to buy a new saw as the wait was so long.

 

I can only recall one warranty repair on my saws and that was the shaft bearings on a Husqvarna 165r.

 

Other than that I did all running repairs and maintenance myself.

[Muddy42]

16 minutes ago, openspaceman said:

When I was buying saws for my own work I found I almost never needed any warranty or service work from a dealer. Even later when I bought for the firm, and used the local dealer, when a warranty claim or repair was needed I found it often necessary to buy a new saw as the wait was so long.

 

I can only recall one warranty repair on my saws and that was the shaft bearings on a Husqvarna 165r.

 

Other than that I did all running repairs and maintenance myself.

 

Totally agree.  Last year I waited three months for a warranty repair for a Husqvarna robot mower, when it returned fixed Husqvarna had upgraded their software which caused a further six month pause. Both delays are the responsibility of Husqvarna not my local dealer, however it has left my faith in new machinery, the benefit of warranties and anything that needs plugging-in in for diagnosis, severely tested.

 

Now, I'd rather buy cheap second hand and have a few extra saws and strimmers on standby, repair myself or if I fail "there-is-a-guy-locally-who-can-fix-anything-with-an-engine."