Ok, I feel that it is time for me to weigh in on this thread. Maybe a
different perspective may be of interest...
I'm the North American importer for the Stubby lathes --
www.stubbylatheusa.com. For those of you attending the AAW symposium at
the end of the month, you'll be seeing the prototype of a new and less
expensive model -- the F600. It is missing some of the unique features
of the Stubby S750 and S1000 but it will be every bit as robust and nice
to use as its big brothers -- just more limiting.
It will also be cast iron -- lots of it because cast iron is a major
part of what gives the Stubby product line its robustness, freedom from
vibration, long life and all the rest of the things which go with the
name Stubby.
While it will be less costly than its big brothers, it won't be able to
compete price-wise with a lot of other machines -- it will still be on
the upper side of $3000.00 and pushing $4000.00.
Now, we could build a fabricated lathe (welded steel construction) for
less money -- quite a bit less money. But it won't feel or work like
the Stubby that people know today. Does it make sense for us to have
what we would always need to consider an inferior product just for us to
have an entry level product? Might users of our entry level product,
when ready to upgrade, look elsewhere because of the short-comings of
our entry level product?
I really am asking for opinions and would like to hear what others say
about it. I've rejected the idea of selling a fabricated machine but
maybe I'm wrong.
Bill Rubenstein
Stubby Lathe USA, Inc.
Chuck wrote:
On Thu, 14 Jul 2005 11:03:14 -0700, "Derek Hartzell"
wrote:
It probably comes down to a higher profit margin. If they can dedicate more
mfg space to equipment to make the more profitable lathe, they can be yet
more profitable. Plus with more volume they may lower their motor costs
significantly.
This may or may not all be true, but I think my original argument
stands on its own: If you _can_ offer a lower-end product to a larger
percentage of a decidedly small population, why not do so? You're
certainly more likely to gain customer loyalty, which is no small
potatoes. Particularly when your next product price is over 100% more
than the lower end, and when you have to ship the thing halfway around
the world to a large part of your customers. It's important to know
that you're catching people at the early stages AS WELL AS the later
stages of their hobby/craft/career.
Maybe they want to raise the standard for an introductory
lathe.
Raise their "standard" maybe. There are plenty of lathes out there
for less than $900, though. But if you want to get people into your
product line, ___and already have the capacity to do so___ , (which
pre-answers the argument of "Then why aren't there any $500 Stubbys")
why on earth would you throw that selling potential away?
An introductory motorcycle or snowmobile can be $3000-6000 for an
adult so why does a lathe need to be $900?
Well, let's see, an introductory snowmobile, for instance can be had
for a mere $3k, right? And what's top-of-the-line go for...maybe 2 or
3 times that? Teknatool's former introductory lathe was what, about
$850? And their top-of-the-line lathe is maybe $1900, give or
take...a little over twice the cost of their intro mode. So I don't
get your point, I guess. The introductory model of some given thing
is about 1/2 or less the price than the best in that category. Kind
of hard to get new customers, though when you only _have_ your
"top-of-the-line." See, they're dropping their introductory lathe.
You can _get_ an "introductory lathe" of various pedigrees for a
couple hundred bucks, but the point is, as a business, to get people
to have YOUR lathe be the one they buy __first__. Not only do you
make a sale and generate brand loyalty, but if you manage to _do_
that, you guarantee yourself future sales as well. So rather than
shooting your wad on one lathe, one turner, one sale, you generate
multiple sales.
I suspect the sales volume for
the DVR is not 10% of sales for the Nova but rather 70% or better.
Suspicions and realities are two different things. I "suspect" that a
lot of their sales come from NovaChucks and accessories, too, but that
doesn't really change things.
One smart thing about the Nova line is their light weight/price. So
shipping can be included in selling price without the seller losing such a
high percentage to shipping. The Nova DVR makes this ratio even better.
Which does nothing at all for those for whom a DVR is priced beyond
their means. There are lots of other lathes around, and I'm sure I'll
get by just fine by _not_ ever owning a Nova. I was just surprised
and frankly shocked when I heard that they had dropped the 3k in favor
of a product that has had such a shaky start, (hey, I didn't write the
reviews, I just read them.) and prices them (Teknatool) out of the
market of a lot of beginners and hobbyists.
--
Chuck *#:^)
chaz3913(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
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September 11, 2001 - Never Forget
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