Takeuchi didn't crack the uk market first time round. Its worth remembering some of the jap makes were also among the first onto the market so competition wasn't as big an issue. My main concern (other than what sunward are like to use) is where are they making the savings to be so much cheaper.
or conversely ... how much the other manufacturers are taking the piss ......... big difference between profit and profiteering
Maybe but they're 25-30% cheaper seemingly on some machines, if you're other makes are fighting for market share surely they'd easy undercut one another if they had that much margin.
An observation here (as this is what I do for a living). With respect to @Regy53, Dealers don't generate demand, they respond to it. It's like going into your local supermarket and asking for a specific artisan cheese - they won't have it. Same with your local builder's merchant and so on. What Tom at Sunward is doing is trying to generate demand so that (some) dealers will get interested and run with it. Liugong have gone the other way and set up their own network - equally acceptable if you can't get a dealer interested without them demanding exclusivity or unreasonable margins. Another factor in play here is that market entry costs money - marketing, dealer discounts, direct sales, whatever and all of these brands will have to pay this (by whichever method they choose) to get a toehold. Some will find that they don't have deep enough pockets and drop out, as we've seen with one well-known brand recently.
one word .... a very dirty one ... CARTEL ... and anyone stepping out of line / step does so at their peril ........ but you'd never get to prove they exist, without a whistle blower at a very high level
I can appreciate the branded components point but if you work it out there aren't that many choices for who to buy some of the main components from if you don't make them yourself. But there's still a lot of parts required to join them all up and that's what will make or break the machine from an operating point of view. Take a 3 tonner from all your main brands and they'll all share a lot of components yet will all operate differently.
Who was that? I thought TDL dropped SANY because SANY were going to set up a UK HQ and recruit more dealers?
I believe that's correct. I wasn't thinking of Sany, more of this https://www.planttalk.co.uk/threads/kato-imer.1515/
Yeah i guess but you could look at it as they'd dipped their toe in for a bit before having a real go.
Thats the one- couldn't remember. Proves the point doesn't it- if a quality Jap manufacturer can't stay the course, why should we expect the chinks to?
Could be target market that mind. Plenty farmers fancy a digger of their own, cheap enough to put them off buying second hand.
Short dipper
