Thread: WILDLY varying locker prices

Originally Posted by dbongard

Ahhhh....tall poppy at its very very best.
Rather than get the facts straight it makes for a better story to knife one of the last Aussie manufacturers square between the shoulder blades.

How about stopping by the factory in Melbourne to meet some of the fitter-turners or assembly crew yourself? - or take a short drive across the street to watch the bulkhead fitting parts being made, or the diff springs being spun out? - Or drive an hour away from here to watch the blue tubing being extruded? - or while you're on holiday in Brisbane you can see our aluminium extrusions being made and polyurethane parts being moulded? - or simply drive an hour away from you in Sydney to watch our castings get poured or our shims getting punched out? ...etc...etc...etc.

It's experts like you who have made Australia the prosperous manufacturing hub that it is.

That's OK, once I and over 1000 other fellow Australian ARB employees, and countless other Australian suppliers and subcontractors lose our jobs due to the sad state of Australian manufacturing and the virtual absence of support for Australian made products from the consumer base and the Australian government, we can all spend our days sitting around typing up smart arsed comments on internet forums about subjects we know nothing about.

-daniel
AIR LOCKER

Unfortunately you have jumped on your high horse again,when someone questions anything to do with your beloved company!!!!!
I could attend any factory,and what is that going to prove?? Only that parts are made there.We already acknowledge that they are.
The question is,why are parts turning up O/S with made in P.R.C. on the box,if everything is made here? This same thing has been told to me by 2 different resellers.

Ohhhh and as far as the tall poppy syndrome is concerned,you couldn't be more incorrect.I use some of the products your company make,and have openly stated so.But that is my choice.I would make the same statement regarding any company,regardless of size,if the same thing was happening there. I also use products from many other manufacturers.I just choose whatever product that I feel will do the job that I require it to do!!

But I guess there will always be a market,because some people are just brand loyal;no matter what the quality of products or if the quality has dropped over the years.Heck some people still buy products made by opposing companies that are knowingly made in China.Knowingly being the operative word!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Originally Posted by TerryO

[snip]

Seriously if ARB was building air lockers in China then why would they bother making them here for our tiny market? [snip]
cheers,
Terry

Terry, I think the inference was that parts/assemblies were manufactured offshore and assembled/finished here, not the entire unit, but it looks like Daniel has corrected that idea.

I have seen ARB knockoff diff locks made in the PRC and advertised on Alibaba, maybe someone was using these in the US and passing them off as genuine ARB ?


re western world manufacturing vs the emerging powers, large scale manufacturing in the west is dying and it probably wont be long before it's gone forever.
The only way any western country can compete these days and into the future is to pursue niche avenues in small high tech or obscure areas with small markets. (unless it's something like a Defence industry which will probably continue to be subsidised)

I'm guessing you've do something like this, the rest of us will be working in rural, mining or service industries into the future.

Originally Posted by TerryO

[snip]
But the thing is we as a nation also don't want the polluting industries that provide the value adding so we end up exporting the basic product for some other country to prosper from then we buy the finished product back at a much higher price then the basic elements that we sold them to make the item.



cheers,
Terry

That's why there's no such thing as a 'level playing field' and never will be.
Between low wages, no worker entitlements/sick pay/workers comp, no or low pollution controls and artificial currency manipulation, particularly the RMB, nations with higher standards of living can't compete anymore.

The US is struggling with this too, between Mexico and the PRC a huge % or their manufacturing base has gone over the border or offshore.

This is the flip side of people boasting about our high $ making imports cheaper. And of both political parties disgracefully and cynically trying to scare us about refugees and immigrants.
The facts are our two-speed economy (mining vs the rest) and our population being very small by world standards condemn us to high domestic prices and uncompetitive manufacturing exports.
If we're serious about having a manufacturing industry we need a lower $ and more immigrants to create a bigger population, since we're not making enough babies ourselves.
Sometimes I really do wish people would think a bit before they have a rant, particularly about refugees and immigrants.

Originally Posted by LowRanger

Unfortunately you have jumped on your high horse again,when someone questions anything to do with your beloved company!!!!!
I could attend any factory,and what is that going to prove?? Only that parts are made there.We already acknowledge that they are.
The question is,why are parts turning up O/S with made in P.R.C. on the box,if everything is made here? This same thing has been told to me by 2 different resellers.

Ohhhh and as far as the tall poppy syndrome is concerned,you couldn't be more incorrect.I use some of the products your company make,and have openly stated so.But that is my choice.I would make the same statement regarding any company,regardless of size,if the same thing was happening there. I also use products from many other manufacturers.I just choose whatever product that I feel will do the job that I require it to do!!

But I guess there will always be a market,because some people are just brand loyal;no matter what the quality of products or if the quality has dropped over the years.Heck some people still buy products made by opposing companies that are knowingly made in China.Knowingly being the operative word!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Actually you miss the point, you could stand there and WATCH the parts being machined right before your very eyes, but of course that would mean you might need to come back and post a retraction or apology, wont happen will it?

But of course your "reseller" knows best.

Originally Posted by isuzurover

The US market is ~10x the AU market. I am sure ARB will do whatever it takes to stay competitive over there.

Part of the problem is also that we probably have ten times too many ARB stores. How many ARB stores do we have in the Perth metro area? Two. In Vic we have 10. Nine of them 90 min from the Melb cbd. If we were to assume that Perth had about the right number of stores per population then Melb CDB just has a few more than the per capita number used in Perth.

There is obviously insufficient competition (too much margin or very high demand) to cull the poorly managed uneconomical stores. While we are one of the highest 4wd driving/owning countries in the world on a per capita basis, so what is it? Are we too small and don't provide high enough a demand or are we subjected to dealers that are just too comfortable with the margins on the products, we can't have it both ways or perhaps they are having it both ways.

Lets move the discussion away from local manufacturing, lets just look at all the resellers of imported parts that we know well, LR parts. Many of us have imported parts by buying at retail prices and paid a premium to have the parts air freighted out, why? Because we have too small a population base? It costs too much to manufacture locally? I will leave that one for the wiser economists and business minds.

Therre's no connection between prices for the same parts in different countries, they are all priced to what the sellers think the local market will bear (ie will pay).
Obviously, they think Brits and Yanks will pay less than we are prepared to pay.

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

Therre's no connection between prices for the same parts in different countries, they are all priced to what the sellers think the local market will bear (ie will pay).
Obviously, they think Brits and Yanks will pay less than we are prepared to pay.

Spot on and as soon as Australian suppliers start to realise that they are no longer just competing with the guy next door but the guy half way around the world then they might retain some of our business.

I have bought from overseas because it worked out half the price. Currency fluctuations have something to do with it but often is is just plain cheaper - however how many local companies have reduced prices because the US price of their imported goods has dropped - not bloody likely.

Garry