'Bicycle prices fixed'

[AndreZA]

The proposed fine of 10%, 10% of what?

 

10% of yearly turnover was mentioned. That is alot for the 6 CL shops countrywide.

[manbearpig]

Completely off the topic but does "Barney Treger" actually exist or is the name just a Pseudonym for a "Bontrager" agent?

[Racingsnail]

Love to know where all these poor shop owners live and the pathetic cars they are forced to drive due to "having" to own cycling shops.

Good minutes, if they are the for real.

[Top Fuel]

If I am not mistaken Mclean rides the Epic every year? He also rode Joburg2c. I am quite sure he does a lot more races than just these ones. Hell I would love to do that every year. These guys need to realise that there is no rainbow at the end of every tunnell. I am done with them. I am sure many people are. Hello CWC and CRC goodbye to the list of shops listed. I might only spend roughly a grand a month in bike shops but it makes me happy to know that my grand will go further with whom I am shopping at.

[RudoJ]

Pardon me for being ignorant or not knowledgeable enough on this subject, but what does this mean for Mr Average Joe, who happens to be cycling as well? Probably zero, silch zip as the loss they will encur from the 10% fine will probably be refelcted in a price increase in their shops.

[Nettie R]

Completely off the topic but does "Barney Treger" actually exist or is the name just a Pseudonym for a "Bontrager" agent?

. Is he not the Trek distributor?

[covie]

LOL!!!!!!

 

 

Maybe he took the minutes in a combination of HTML CSS and XML, and did not assign the proper version number before the source code got checked out? Hence why the minutes are inacurate. The developers mintues should have been compiled to Guitly.exe V4.0

[rouxtjie]

Pardon me for being ignorant or not knowledgeable enough on this subject, but what does this mean for Mr Average Joe, who happens to be cycling as well? Probably zero, silch zip as the loss they will encur from the 10% fine will probably be refelcted in a price increase in their shops.

True but then its up to the consumer to vote with his/ her wallet, not only will I not do this out of principle but I wont be able to afford it, remember these retailers are not the cheapest to start with....Time will tell I suppose.

[capecyclist]

Pardon me for being ignorant or not knowledgeable enough on this subject, but what does this mean for Mr Average Joe, who happens to be cycling as well? Probably zero, silch zip as the loss they will encur from the 10% fine will probably be refelcted in a price increase in their shops.

Exactly, thats what will happen. So now we'll actually end up being worse off in the long run. The only good thing is that those shops that didn't collude will be able to keep their prices lower and hopefully people will migrate to them. This has all been coming for a long time, and as soon as the case has been settled it would be good to name and shame these shops involved, so people can avoid them.

 

The short sightedness of these importers and shops always annoyed me. Do they honestly think people are THAT stupid? We all know the price of things, we all know we can get our goods cheaper online. Do they think we dont know that they buy directly from the manufacturer yet we still get things cheaper through an online shop? It's such an anti growth, greedy business model. Rather that supplying goods at fair prices, allowing people to buy decent bikes, and stimulate the growth of the industry, possibly seeing far more people becoming involved, they have chosen to drive Porsches.

 

Name and shame.

[GrumpyOldGuy]

I find the whole saga sleazy and underhanded, it do'snt take a PHD to see from the comments (once the fluff is removed) exactly what their intention was

 

......comment - most businesses make 100 -200% profit - Yeah, on what planet.? Not this one for sure.

 

........and the comment about Cajees, I just find so disrespectfull.

 

 

Margins in the bicycling industry � Fritz Pienaar and Andrew Mclean

 

Fritz Pienaar

 

 

I would just like to say that everyone agrees in principle with raising the margins in the cycling retail industry,

 

Andrew Mclean

 

 

The one complaint is that there are too many retailers, yes this is true. Shops should not under cut each other, as we�re doing ourselves in at the end of the day, if now gives discount no one will shop around, then it�s up the each shop�s service and relations with their customers which will set them apart.

 

Fritz Pienaar

 

The only way we can do this is by all agreeing and uniting with the price increase, and getting the wholesalers to back this decision and help us by providing the new suggested retail price to the retail shop who they supply, and advertise that price to the public.

 

Many of you are concerned that this is some form of price fixing, it isn�t and this is not illegal. By any means it could be seen as price fixing from the suppliers that we need to sell at only 35% margins.

 

As it is at the moment you cannot sell over the suggested retail price, because people will simply go buy their goods somewhere else. Shops that offer discounts are seen as discount shops, we cannot change how they sell, but If we increase the suggested retail prices they will still under cut us but at a higher margin.

 

 

It�s your choice as retailer to stock items from suppliers, if your wholesalers does not support the new margins, then you can choose to stock only from those that does. Forcing that wholesaler to comply with the new margins and suggested retail pricing.

 

 

 

We can create a sustainable healthy industry, the King pins in major areas agrees, that higher margins are needed to create this.

 

 

 

We need your co-operation and support to introduce this on the 1st October 2008

Support wholesalers and retails, the bigger shops will apply pressure to the wholesalers and the wholesalers will in turn enforce the new retail prices to the smaller shops.

 

 

 

We can do this, without any upsets if we all do it at the same time.

 

 

We can start in Gauteng and it will in time spread through the whole country, with help of the Wholesalers, increasing the suggested retail pricing and supplying their customers with price lists showing the new suggested retail amounts.

 

 

 

Questions & Concerns:

 

 

Passion is why we make profit, can you run your business at 35% mark-up? Most businesses run at 100-200% mark-up.

 

 

Fritz Pienaar

 

Wholesalers can then enforce a suggested retail price.

 

Weed-out dealers that piss-off others by under cutting.

 

Andrew Mclean

 

Michael (Dragons) as example would be force to come onboard if you only stock from wholesalers who support this initiative.

 

Also how do you know who has what stock when, and sits with a lot of 2008 stock, then people would rather buy from him. All margins should increase on all items 1st October 2008.

 

 

Andrew Mclean

 

We need to create reputable stores not discount stores. As far as shops like Cajees are concerned I would embrace another 8 Cajees around my store in Fourways, because you only ever buy one bike from them and then you learn and move on to bike shops who have reputable service, advise etc.

 

 

Andrew Mclean

 

It�s very important to stick to these mark-ups. There are 180+ Retail shops and on the 1st October 2008 Fritz Pienaar Cycles and all Cyclelab�s in the country will start with the new Margins.

 

 

Fritz Pienaar

 

Does everyone agree? Is there any retailer or Wholesaler who disagrees?

[LenL]

You Know I was at Tezers in durban and had a couple of table dances with some mates and then went to Midrand Tezers with some business partners and you know we paid the same price for a table dance, and you know that Lolly Jackson's estate was valued at two hundred million rand, now thats what I call price fixing.

[River Rat]

Man, reading these minutes leaves me with the opinion that these guys are totally ignorant of what it takes to run a good business and we are paying for it! Even Lolly Jackson could've taught them something - "The Customer always comes first".

 

To those retailers who believe that they are hard done by when the fine hits them (and it will) you might want to remember that being a great cyclist will not mean you will be a great businessman. My advice to you is go get yourself a business education, attend the JSE Alt-X course for directors, read the King 3 report and work hard at delivering what the customer wants.

 

As I see it, the fine is the least of your problems you have lost the respect of your customers, you will lose business to online retailers and those retailers that do not have to pay the fine will be able to undercut you.If you ignore these simple truths you will not survive.

 

Good Luck

[Minion]

If I am not mistaken Mclean rides the Epic every year? He also rode Joburg2c. I am quite sure he does a lot more races than just these ones.

What exactly are you trying to say with that? That it's a lot of money? Giving that he wins hiw age category on a regular basis, I'm pretty certain his accommodation and entry fees have been sponsored for quite a while now.

[ccc2]

this is a classic -

"Steve Meltzer

 

Customers from East London complained because there was a new bike shop that opened up, but it was professionally run etc. The other bike shops moaned. How do we differentiate between certain accounts to new stores? How do we discern between shops who take us for a ride, and those that are good bike stores."

 

it seems that the industry contains a certain amount of childish imbeciles.

[Capricorn]

i wonder if Marko is the marco from Action Cycles.... hmmm.

[Capricorn]

nvm: the OP's post didnt list them under those found guilty by the Commission.