Marine electronics prices

[Guest]

Here's an example I just thought of. I was in the shop yesterday and overheard her on the phone saying "I just got two new pieces in that would really flatter your body shape, why don't you come inb and have a look before I put them on display?".

 

Would you get that from Farmers?

[John B 106]

I have a 40yo broken down British sports car. Sad but true.

So I take the radiator into local guru for repair.

Told core is fecked $790 to replace.

Imported one from the UK landed brand new $350.

I have a 40 yr old British car too. Recently it'd been running quite well so I had to import some of this to make it feel right.

 

[Guest]

[Guest]

We often recode EPIRBs/ PLBs that are new or been brought in new. We also recode to NZ frequency EPIRBS on boats brought into NZ. Anything can be done, and it is generally ok to parallel import for 1 or 2 for private use. We don't like it but can't do much about it..

If you were bringing in heaps of new PLB/ EPIRBs privately for Trade Me resale (as an example) we would probably go aahhh "Your price is now $XXX"

 

The YNZ inspectors are asking for evidence of registration of the 406. Not such an issue at a Cat 4 level, but you need to do it.

[Guest]

"We have an outlet in Newmarket and have been watching them fall, and did due diligence on one small chain just before they hit the wall about 12 months ago. Their problem was that they were selling small volumnes from a multitude of suppliers, hence didnt have the buying power to drive the supply cost down. This will always to a problem for a small operator. Your larger chains (Farmers, Country Road etc) survive buy whipping their suppliers so they can maintain their 500%+ margins.

 

We couldnt survive on a 300% margin, hence we bashup our supplier on a regular basis."

 

Don't you have double standards? I can assure you that Marine Electronics distributors and or dealers don't make even a 10th of the margins that you are making. You are complaining about margins but quite happy to take huge margins yourself. PM me and if it is one of our brands I will ensure that I give you the best deal that I can on the part that you are after. I am intirgued to know what it is that is so widely different to the price that you have been quoted off shore as in my experience it is not normally this far out.

[tuffyluffy 76]

Macka, if thats a double standard then every company or person the watches their costs and try's to maximise their income is guilty. Hence there is a fare few of us.

 

BTW, your comparing apples with pumpkins. We need to maintain those margins to stay afloat, and i can assure you we are not rolling in it, far from it. Doing OK, yes, creaming it, No.

[Fogg 427]

6 yrs ago I was shopping around for a suite of Navman and Raymarine kit to put on AC and as I recall I was looking at spending around NZD$6k. Out of curiosity I called my old swindlery in the UK and he quoted me around 25% less allowing for shipping and taxes etc. I could kind of understand this on the Raymarine stuff but was gobsmaked that kiwi kit could be shipped to the UK, sold by a retailer and then shipped back again for such a discount to local prices.

 

In the end I reluctantly decided to buy locally 'just in case' and in the case of the Navman kit I am relieved cos I had to return 3 units for repairs/replacement in 6 years and give them credit, Burnsco were great at facilitating it. I wouldn't have fancied my chances sending back to the UK etc....

 

Obviously, it's down to market efficiencies (read size) again and the fact that if you're selling to a large offshore market you can ship lower prices but for your local (smaller) market you need to run higher prices.

 

The only consolation I can think of is the next time you think you're being stung by a NZ marine retailer due to the small local market, jump straight onto your boat, head for the nearest quiet bay, pour a drink, watch the sun set and enjoy the flip side of living in such a small and uncrowded place.

 

It’s a choice to live in NZ, after all.

[wheels 543]

I remember when a shop at the opposite end of the wee town was sold and a new guy came in.He was going to change the world of chandlery and was going to run us out of town. He even opened 24hrs a day at one stage. I wouldlove to know who was going to walk into his shop at 3AM to buy a tin of Anti-foul in such a little town, that it was way back then. Anyway, he didn't last. I have to say he certainly hung in there for far longer than we all thought he would. Maybe he started with a large fortune. I will never forget the day a commercial fishing guy came into the shop and asked if we could give him a quote of a huge coil of rope, of which we did. He went away and a few days later returned to tell us that he bought the coil from the opposition. He apolagised but said, "well I had to really. The guy gave me the coil at cost and less GST, saying that he could claim the GST back."

We all laughed that he thought he was making 10% supplied curtisy of the NZ Gvt and realised it was just a waiting game before this fellow would be gone.

[Guest]

In the early days of selling a big product of ours I had a OK margin on it yet was selling at around 60% of the current RRP. I sold a reasonable amount yet heard a LOT 'It must be crap as it is so cheap' even though it was and still is easily the highest quality available in the Sth Hemisphere.

 

I mentioned it to a mate who runs a large mutli-national who said put your price up and you'll sell more. So I upped the price to the going RRP plus 10%, sales soared and we never looked back. Bizarre but true. Since then the increased costs have nibbled the crap out of that margin... bugger. Luckily the dudes selling the cheap nasty to the unsuspecting punters run humongous margins so it inflates their prices dramatically to a point we can still have a small difference and we still get some liveable with margin.

 

I'm struggling with your argument Tuffy. You do lower volume more one two off type clothing items with many hundy % margins yet a chart plotter seller selling a similar low lower volume item is a thief with a small only double figure margin. How's that work?

[tuffyluffy 76]

Knoty, I’m not 100% sure what you’re saying, the local retailer isn’t a thief, just not competitive in this instance. We could discuss the marketing mix/why people buy/brand value etc etc for days and still not have any clarity.

 

The facts are, that I can get on the internet and in 5 minutes buy the EXACT same unit, offshore for a saving of $500. That’s an additional $500 I can spend, probably locally, on other stuff for myself, the house or the boat. If the local distributor was, say $200 more expensive, then I’d probably buy from them, but $500 is to bigger difference to ignore.

 

If my business drops its margins, and turnover doesn’t increase, we’re out of business and several people are out of work. It’s as simple as that. Why tamper something that aint broken?

 

BTW – retail centre rents will make your eyes bleed. We could rent 1/2 an acre of warehousing in south Akl for the same price we’re paying for 50sqm in prime shopping districts. We don’t, for obvious reasons.

[Guest]

Knoty, I’m not 100% sure what you’re saying, the local retailer isn’t a thief, just not competitive in this instance. We could discuss the marketing mix/why people buy/brand value etc etc for days and still not have any clarity.

I even confused myself with that one, yet again, and Hell yes to the rest. The varying theories are infinite...... and often bizarre.

 

BTW – retail centre rents will make your eyes bleed. We could rent 1/2 an acre of warehousing in south Akl for the same price we’re paying for 50sqm in prime shopping districts. We don’t, for obvious reasons.

Tell me about it. We've just recently been invited to get into something more at the retail end in a prominent spot. I damn near had to change my undies at the rent they were asking.

 

 

But as Macka said above, the electronic guys (and many others) run margins of only a tiny amount compared to yours for example, which from my understanding is very correct. So one can quite easily deduce that the answer to this

The unit doesn’t require any 'New Zealandising' or any other input from the distributor that would add to the cost.

is 'It's nothing to do with the NZ distributor', as is the case with many other items. Speak to the one or 2 only multinationals that own most of the brands or so it seems in that game. I'm bloody sure Macka would like to know the answer as well.

 

But in saying that there are cases of pure greed. I just flew in a item from Canada and even after a $500 courier bill it was 50% of buying the same thing here. The dude in NZ is just taking the piss as I found out what his costs were. He could have sold it to me for around what I ended up paying, inc the airfreight, and he still would have made a very tidy, but far from a rag trade margin

[tuffyluffy 76]

But in saying that there are cases of pure greed. I just flew in a item from Canada and even after a $500 courier bill it was 50% of buying the same thing here. The dude in NZ is just taking the piss as I found out what his costs were. He could have sold it to me for around what I ended up paying, inc the airfreight, and he still would have made a very tidy, but far from a rag trade margin

 

 

Ahhhh, so your not supporting NZ buisnesses either

 

I'll reveal all once everything is done, dusted and working.

 

If the NZ distrubutor bought the item from the same dudes i found on the interweb, they could add a 50% margin and still be a few hundy cheaper than their curent price, so gawd knows what margin theyre adding.

[Guest]

Ahhhh, so your not supporting NZ buisnesses either

I did try very hard even even told him I knew his cost prices and the price I could land one and I knew he could make a tidy margin yet be within a couple of hundy of that. He refused to move and made one very fatale mistake, he said I had no choice but to buy from in and it was said with 'tone'. People shouldn't say things like that to me as it left me no choice but to prove him very wrong. In this case it was a pure case of the NZ end being a thief so a bit different to a the chart plotter dudes for example.

 

What's more I'm after 3 more and he's going to miss out on those as well now.

[Fogg 427]

Ahhhh, so your not supporting NZ buisnesses either

I did try very hard even even told him I knew his cost prices and the price I could land one and I knew he could make a tidy margin yet be within a couple of hundy of that. He refused to move and made one very fatale mistake, he said I had no choice but to buy from in and it was said with 'tone'. People shouldn't say things like that to me as it left me no choice but to prove him very wrong. In this case it was a pure case of the NZ end being a thief so a bit different to a the chart plotter dudes for example.

 

What's more I'm after 3 more and he's going to miss out on those as well now.

 

I hope you've made him aware of that?

[Guest]

I certainly did and did so with a fair amount of pleasure. What's more a mate is now toying with the idea of getting 2 for his house rebuild. Guess where he won't be going

[Guest]

maybe I could assist??? Or is it a bit out of our line?

 

Jono

[Guest]

I do know you have a vast array if fine goodies Mr Jono but you don't have these items. They are dunnies.

[Guest]

Macka, if thats a double standard then every company or person the watches their costs and try's to maximise their income is guilty. Hence there is a fare few of us.

 

BTW, your comparing apples with pumpkins. We need to maintain those margins to stay afloat, and i can assure you we are not rolling in it, far from it. Doing OK, yes, creaming it, No.

 

Hey Tuffy Luffy, How did you get on with the parts? We are all trying to stay afloat by minimising costs, trying to make sales, providing service and warranty and a bit of sponsorship to the NZ yachties whilst trying to remaining competitive with US internet sales that provide none of this. Not sure who is creaming it in this market apart from the receivership companies. Just saying don't skite about 500% margins and suggest that the marine electronics co's are gouging because I can assure you that they are not.

[Guest]

Hey guys - we can complain about prices of boat bits in NZ, but on the plus side the labour rates in NZ for any marine work are amongst the cheapest in the world. Get any marine diesel, electrical, painting or pretty much any general boatyard work done in Canada (Vancouver or Victoria in our case) and pay CA$90 per hour and not much less in Seattle. So the reality is you may pay 50% more to buy the bits in NZ but you will pay 50% less to get it installed if you can't do it yourself. Stainless fabrication and welding work we had done in NZ was at NZ$40 per hour, we had our dodger and bimini modified to handle the incessant rain in the Pacific Northwest and it cost equivalent of NZ$200 per hour. Canvas work was 3 times the price in Canada to NZ. So it is al swings and roundabouts. By the way, most anti-foul paint is cheaper in NZ than in the US and Canada.

[tuffyluffy 76]

Macka dude, im not skiting about 500% margins for pete’s sake. As is said before, you cant compare apples and pumpkins, 500% on a $20 shirt is $100, a 20% margin on a $500,000 yacht is $100,000. Which would you prefer, the 500% or the 20% margin? Well it all depends doesn’t it?

 

Unit has arrived from the States (took 3 days, and included a follow-up phone call from the dealer to check it arrived OK), and a box of beers this week will get it installed, and after its tested and working I’ll give the lowdown. So far I’ve paid NZ$850 for a unit that the NZ agent wanted $1,400 for.