I never saw Sowa as a manufacuturer; they were distributor who started rebranding made in China tools and charging more. Initially the house brand of a Kitchener tool/industrial supply place irrc. No issue with buying low cost offshore if that's what people want, but it always seemed quite the rub having to pay a premium for it. As a distributor vs manufacturer that imo casts doubt on quality...I mean QA, design etc are not normally a core competency of a distributor . I'm stunned that a Sowa would price themselves the same as a Kurt.
All this stuff seems to have rocketed up in price the last couple of years. I found there are lot of little tool dealers who wouldn't stock things like the Kurt but will bring them in when ordered. I bought a couple of Kurts 5 or 6 years ago and sent an RFQ around to a bunch of them. I think I ended up getting them for about 55% of kbc's price at the time.
The markups on this stuff can be astounding. Trick is to find the guy will take 10% instead of 50%+ margin.
Story illustrating markups..... Years ago I need jaws for a Rohm chuck. Called the number at rohm.com and got a quote for $190 (turns out I was calling the US and that was US$). As they took my address down for the order they said we can't sell to you, you must call the CDN distributor, who is Sowa or whatever the parent company is in Ktchener. Called them, price is $440. I say "what!!! I just got a quote for $190!" without missing a beat he says "we'll match that" and they did, irrc at 190 CDN. They wouldn't sell direct but would through kbc.
Thats why this stuff costs so much.....they came off their list price of 440 to 190 and still had enough juice in it to cut KBC in. Thats better margins that the pharmaceutical industry......heck maybe even better than the recreational pharmaceutical industry lol. I think I'm in the wrong business
All this stuff seems to have rocketed up in price the last couple of years. I found there are lot of little tool dealers who wouldn't stock things like the Kurt but will bring them in when ordered. I bought a couple of Kurts 5 or 6 years ago and sent an RFQ around to a bunch of them. I think I ended up getting them for about 55% of kbc's price at the time.
The markups on this stuff can be astounding. Trick is to find the guy will take 10% instead of 50%+ margin.
Story illustrating markups..... Years ago I need jaws for a Rohm chuck. Called the number at rohm.com and got a quote for $190 (turns out I was calling the US and that was US$). As they took my address down for the order they said we can't sell to you, you must call the CDN distributor, who is Sowa or whatever the parent company is in Ktchener. Called them, price is $440. I say "what!!! I just got a quote for $190!" without missing a beat he says "we'll match that" and they did, irrc at 190 CDN. They wouldn't sell direct but would through kbc.
Thats why this stuff costs so much.....they came off their list price of 440 to 190 and still had enough juice in it to cut KBC in. Thats better margins that the pharmaceutical industry......heck maybe even better than the recreational pharmaceutical industry lol. I think I'm in the wrong business
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