Aspen sales - change in policy?

[Eddie@aspen]

Hi Alec,

 

In the last 12 months we have add more and more stockists to our Aspen network.

 

We now have over 200 with more signing up every month.

 

All of these dealers can take Aspen orders and arrange for fuel to be delivered direct to the user, all at the same delivery costs as buying from our website.

 

But with the expanding dealer network there is less need to pay to have fuel delivered as you can just collect it from your local dealer.

 

If you require a pallet of fuel 54x5 litres or 2x 200 litre drum delivery is free of charge for mainland UK.

 

Dealers will give you a discount on this size order and so there is no saving buying from our website.

 

We want to support small and local businesses and so we are switching all sales to go though our dealers.

 

They will be able to offer better service and instant advise as we deal with the increase in Aspen sales.

 

I and the office team are always here for help and advise and please contact me direct if you have any Aspen questions [email protected] or 07568 108953.

 

Kind regards

 

Eddie

Hi all,

 

What do you think about this change?

 

If you don't have a local dealer give me the name of who is close and I will contact them about stocking Aspen.

 

Please ask them to stock it before I contact them so they know there is a market for Aspen.

 

Please let me know.

 

Kind regards

 

Eddie

[agg221]

Hi Eddie,

 

Thankyou for the explanation - apologies for the delayed reply, I had overlooked the updates to the thread.

 

From my point of view, I don't think the changes are likely to have a negative impact and I would guess from the lack of responses that the same is true of most people (compare with the recent outcry over Stihl's change in policy), mainly because they buy in person and anyone who bought by post still can.

 

The change is dependent on dealers being prepared to post (or to make the arrangements for you to post?) and I wouldn't count on all of them being prepared to do so. If this proves a problem it may become necessary to list on the website which dealers will ship.

 

The one area I can see some potential for problems over is pricing.

 

Aspen is currently in a slightly unusual position in that it is not sufficiently widely available to avoid geographic monopolies. The on-line sales may have had an effect of providing a pricing baseline. Aspen is sufficiently specialist that a reasonable proportion of users may be aware of the website, and if a dealer tries to exceed a certain price threshold it becomes cheaper to buy direct. If this is the case then the above factors may enable price hikes to a worrying level from the user's point of view.

 

It may however go the other way. I'm thinking here of the internet pricing model, as used by FR Jones amongst others re. Stihl products. My understanding (drawn from the comments on here rather than any personal knowledge) is that the combination of reduced overheads and economy of scale allowed Stihl products to be sold online at a lower margin than local dealers could achieve. This was resented by local dealers, leading to Stihl's attempts to ban online sales. With chainsaws, the argument was made that these are complex products and a handover is needed - Aspen doesn't have the possibility of such an argument and Stihl's policy has been withdrawn now anyway. I can see the potential for a large supplier such as Jonesies to take up internet sales of Aspen at a discounted rate, making it harder to convince local dealers to stock it as they can't make it competitive (maybe this is Gardenkit's chance to become an oil baron )

 

All the above is pure speculation, but may be worth considering if you haven't already.

 

Can I just add though how much I appreciate the fact that, with Aspen, I can ask a straightforward question directly to the right person and get a straightforward reply, in a public arena so that the information is available to all interested parties. I contrast this with the policies of other manufacturers.

 

Alec

Edited February 1, 2014 by agg221

[TGB]

When I'm up north, I can get 2t from the same dealer as Hodge uses. But then I'm only a few miles away, (they stock Aspen 2T & 4T but won't stock the chain oil - never mind.

 

When down south, it's an 80 mile round trip. So I buy 3-4 5L cans at once. This suits me but for the dealer, I guess it's less than perfect. Less visits, means less likelihood of me seeing some other shiny thing to buy.

[Eddie@aspen]

Hi Eddie,

 

Thankyou for the explanation - apologies for the delayed reply, I had overlooked the updates to the thread.

 

From my point of view, I don't think the changes are likely to have a negative impact and I would guess from the lack of responses that the same is true of most people (compare with the recent outcry over Stihl's change in policy), mainly because they buy in person and anyone who bought by post still can.

 

The change is dependent on dealers being prepared to post (or to make the arrangements for you to post?) and I wouldn't count on all of them being prepared to do so. If this proves a problem it may become necessary to list on the website which dealers will ship.

 

The one area I can see some potential for problems over is pricing.

 

Aspen is currently in a slightly unusual position in that it is not sufficiently widely available to avoid geographic monopolies. The on-line sales may have had an effect of providing a pricing baseline. Aspen is sufficiently specialist that a reasonable proportion of users may be aware of the website, and if a dealer tries to exceed a certain price threshold it becomes cheaper to buy direct. If this is the case then the above factors may enable price hikes to a worrying level from the user's point of view.

 

It may however go the other way. I'm thinking here of the internet pricing model, as used by FR Jones amongst others re. Stihl products. My understanding (drawn from the comments on here rather than any personal knowledge) is that the combination of reduced overheads and economy of scale allowed Stihl products to be sold online at a lower margin than local dealers could achieve. This was resented by local dealers, leading to Stihl's attempts to ban online sales. With chainsaws, the argument was made that these are complex products and a handover is needed - Aspen doesn't have the possibility of such an argument and Stihl's policy has been withdrawn now anyway. I can see the potential for a large supplier such as Jonesies to take up internet sales of Aspen at a discounted rate, making it harder to convince local dealers to stock it as they can't make it competitive (maybe this is Gardenkit's chance to become an oil baron )

 

All the above is pure speculation, but may be worth considering if you haven't already.

 

Can I just add though how much I appreciate the fact that, with Aspen, I can ask a straightforward question directly to the right person and get a straightforward reply, in a public arena so that the information is available to all interested parties. I contrast this with the policies of other manufacturers.

 

Alec

Hi,

 

If the local dealer is too expensive or won't contact us to deliver direct to you just choose another.

 

It will be their loss.

 

All they have to do is give us the delivery address and the costs are the same.

 

I can't see why a dealer would have a problem with getting us to do all the work and they make the profit, but some are funny!

 

Thank you for your comments and we will always be on the end of the phone or email for help or advice.

 

I am planning this years shows over the next weeks so I will keep you all posted so you can come and say "Hi"

 

We will not be selling Aspen at shows as health and safety say no and as above we want sales to go to the dealers.

 

Kind regards

 

Eddie

[carpenter1]

Can you try cornwall farmers and mole valley farmers eddie please, I keep asking them

Also what is the rought prices for the 4t, as considering it for the quad, 5lt and the 200lt

[GardenKit]

I can see the potential for a large supplier such as Jonesies to take up internet sales of Aspen at a discounted rate, making it harder to convince local dealers to stock it as they can't make it competitive (maybe this is Gardenkit's chance to become an oil baron )

 

 

 

 

 

The thing with Aspen is that all the dealers buy at the same price, whatever the quantity.

 

And there is very little profit margin for the dealer, so very little chance for discounting.

 

A purchase of 9 cans from an internet seller would have to be discounted by 13% just to cover the £20 delivery cost, otherwise it would be cheaper to buy from a dealers shop.

 

And 13% is way too much to be discounting this product.

 

So distance buying is only really suitable for those who do not have access to a local dealer or have a cost involved in getting there.

 

As Eddie has said, there is really no reason why any dealer should not be happy to take the order and have it sent straight fro AAOil, we certainly are.

 

Barrie

[Rebel_Commando]

Eddie, Have you ever approached Charlies stores to stock Aspen?

 

They are probably one of the biggest small machinery suppliers in Wales.

They have stores in Queensferry, Shrewsbury, Welshpool, Newtown x 2, Aberystwyth and Camarthen.

 

I'm sure they could shift a lot of Aspen for you with the right marketing!