husqvarna saw prices uk vs usa

[mendiplogs]

As a matter of interest, how much profit do you guys think dealers in the UK are making on the sale of a 550XP?

 

HI GARDEN not a lot WHEN I BARTER BUT THERES ALL WAYS SOMEONE WHO PAY MORE :sneaky2:THANKS JON £20/30 ON A 550 AT £480/490 PRICE THANKS JON

[keeptrying]

£725 is the list price on Husqvarna UK's website.

spares and consumables are reasonably priced compared to other shops and the internet, a mate of mine went to them for a lawn mower and found pretty much the same story, list price and not much movement even though he has an account with them and has been going there for years, I don't know if he just isn't getting the discounts from his suppliers so simply can't compete with the online retailers.

That's why I started the thread, to see if there's a simple explanation as to why there is such disparity in prices

[GardenKit]

Not saying that thats the answer guys, but how much would you like to make if you were stocking a £600 saw? (remember, its metal on the shelf, rather than money in the bank until its sold)

 

Then assembling and PDI costs, handover, and retaining some reserve for when it goes wrong on something you cannot claim under warranty, but have to give the customer anyway. As well as some clear profit?

 

How far do you think £30 would go to cover this?

 

Or would you want to make more on that commitment?

[mendiplogs]

Not saying that thats the answer guys, but how much would you like to make if you were stocking a £600 saw? (remember, its metal on the shelf, rather than money in the bank until its sold)

 

Then assembling and PDI costs, handover, and retaining some reserve for when it goes wrong on something you cannot claim under warranty, but have to give the customer anyway. As well as some clear profit?

 

How far do you think £30 would go to cover this?

 

Or would you want to make more on that commitment?

 

HI GARDEN i do not think some out there make a lot saws it just NO.S they sale mate but you make more £30 on a £500/600 saw theres some dealers doing 32% they can make that much CAN THEY thanks jon

[Graham]

Not saying that thats the answer guys, but how much would you like to make if you were stocking a £600 saw? (remember, its metal on the shelf, rather than money in the bank until its sold)

 

Then assembling and PDI costs, handover, and retaining some reserve for when it goes wrong on something you cannot claim under warranty, but have to give the customer anyway. As well as some clear profit?

 

How far do you think £30 would go to cover this?

 

Or would you want to make more on that commitment?

 

I dabbled for a while selling goods. I had to sell £500-£1000 items at just above trade to compete. Where I made it up was on consumables and accessories where I could mark up from 50% - 200%.

 

Selling a £500 item and making £20 on it hurt but that's the way it was.

[keeptrying]

I'm sure there is very little profit in the machinery and I don't think that £500 or so is an outrageous price, far from it when you consider the quality of the product is so high, it's more that I was shocked that the same saw presumably made to the same quality could be bought from a shop in the US, imported to the UK and cost me around the same price that a UK shop is paying for it. Husqvarna must be almost giving them away in the US.

[easy-lift guy]

I'm sure there is very little profit in the machinery and I don't think that £500 or so is an outrageous price, far from it when you consider the quality of the product is so high, it's more that I was shocked that the same saw presumably made to the same quality could be bought from a shop in the US, imported to the UK and cost me around the same price that a UK shop is paying for it. Husqvarna must be almost giving them away in the US.

 

Perhaps you should sit down and add up all of the cost associated with running a profitable retail business. I believe you would be sadly enlighten or still confused about the cost of conducting business and earning a profit on what is sold. The fact that someone can purchase product some where else "seeming cheaper" is in fact a fallacy. I have had customers attempt to purchase my product from my web-site only to find out that they will be redirected to their nearest dealer. I will not sell direct since this is against company policy where a dealer already exist. No manufacturer is giving anything away any where.

Please look up the phrase, "economies of scale" you may understand what other members have been trying to explain to you.

easy-lift guy

[Mark_Skyland]

Machines are the least profitable products we sell. We pay a lot more than £330 and thats excluding the VAT.

 

Easy lift is probably on the money and check out Josh's post.[/quote

 

The fact that a retailer in the US can sell an item for less than the pre tax cost to a UK retailer seems bonkers and as for Sweden being more expensive makes even less sense.

I'd like to spend my hard earned pennies in the UK and as near to home as possible, but my nearest dealer wants over £700. The saving I mentioned in the op equates to the best part of a days pay.

I'm having a hard time deciding if I support the economy and UK retailers at an increased cost to myself or I say bugger that I'm going for the best deal I can get.

If everyone acted in the same selfish way would we end up getting a better deal or would more retailers here go bust putting more people out of work?

 

TBH I dont think its selfish.

 

The saving you mention is a lot of money and I wouldnt blame anyone for choosing the cheaper option.

But, the outcome would probably be that you would find UK dealers wouldnt bother stocking machines, repairing them under warranty or selling spares. Some already go down this route, they sell arb/forestry gear but not machines, others will stock machines but price them higher than internet prices to make it worthwhile.

 

Although we try our best to be competitive i'm afraid that if mediplogs is right and got a 32% discount then there is no way on earth I would contemplate matching that price! It would be better for me to sell the saw at cost price and tell the customer to never come back!

 

That is a crazy discount which most dealers would agree with, with quite a few ****** thrown in.

 

No seriously, we are all business men/women if something isnt profitable we have a few choices,

 

 

We work out how to make it profitable which could mean a major revamp of how our business runs,

 

We stop providing that service/product

 

We charge accordingly to make it profitable and risk not selling our service/product

 

 

To try and put it into perspective, we have made far more money selling cooking stoves than we have combining all the chainsaw sales from both manufactures together, by say 10 fold.

 

 

This is the business we are all in, if it was easy and made us loads of money arbtalk probably wouldn't exist!

 

 

 

We would all be jet skiing from our 40ft yacht in the med.

[GardenKit]

Mark is spot on.

 

I know many of you will not want to hear this, but the constant heavy discounting of Stihl and Huskie machines by the larger distributors in the UK is totally crazy.

 

The 'trade discount' given to dealers by the manufacturers was originally intended to be the profit that the dealer needed to keep in order to fully support his business.

 

The dealer would make sufficient to invest in specialist tools and staff training,also to ensure adequate stocks of machines and spares to support the product. He could then offer the 'good old fashioned service' that you all want.

 

But times change and the handfull of large dealers who are intent on nationwide domination have used this discount to compete with each other and have driven prices ever downwards, until customers can buy at little more than cost.

 

These dealers are only making money by shifting volume, its just plain crazy and very poor business sense.

 

But it means that the thousands of other small dealers throughout the land are being wrongly branded as greedy for wanting (and needing) to maintain a sensible profit margin.

Their sales are dropping because of the 'discount' merchants, to the point where it is not viable to continue supporting the product.

 

The result is that the dealer network is shrinking and local service will soon be a thing of the past.

 

To shop around for the cheapest price and then blackmail the local dealer is ethically wrong.

It is also wrong to buy at the cheapest price and then expect the local man to provide spares and service for that product.

It is even more wrong to slate the local dealer for his service when he has not been supported in the first place.

 

Now for the flack!

[corylus]

"To shop around for the cheapest price and then blackmail the local dealer is ethically wrong.

 

 

It is also wrong to buy at the cheapest price and then expect the local man to provide spares and service for that product.

 

 

It is even more wrong to slate the local dealer for his service when he has not been supported in the first place."

 

Not sure about the term "blackmail" it's a bit strong, the dealer does have a choice whether to supply you with a saw or not!

 

But can't disagree with the rest.