CORRESPONDENCE Correspondence
We’ve had heaps of correspondence about last months issue, some agreeing, and some disagreeing with some of the topics brought up. It’s good to air your views! Keep them coming...
NEWS
Can the tackle trade save itself?
We’ve been sworn to secrecy at T&G about who this is from, but it makes very interesting reading. We’d love to hear your thoughts on this... Have a read, see what you think?
H
aving read a couple of articles in T&G last month, I found myself wanting to air some points of my own. I have been in the tackle retail trade for over 35 years now, and have made a reasonable living at it, although at times it has been a struggle, mainly due to the mentality of the retailers who thinks that they can corner the market by selling at heavily discounted prices. “If I sell cheaper than the competition, I’ll sell more and make more”. WRONG! Let’s look at that scenario a bit
further.
So, you set up a business with the pile of money that you may have got from savings, early retirement, inheritance or whatever. You are entering a trade that you have no expansive knowledge of, and want to make an instant “success”. “If I sell cheaper, then I’ll sell more than my established competition”. Yes, you probably will, but what will you do when you alone can’t handle business yourself? Employ someone to help? Yep! That sounds like a good idea. “Now I can handle more business”. But you’ve just increased your overheads significantly! Oh! And what about the Taxman, bank charges, card purchase charges, postage cost if you run a mail order service (and oh damn! You’ve been doing postage free on all orders). And then the general overheads; gas, electricity, rates, phone charges, the list goes on. Note I haven’t mentioned wages in that list mainly because I didn’t want to frighten you too much. Some of your suppliers are happy as you are selling lots of their product. Some are not so happy because you are destroying all their hard work in developing
44 | Tackle & Guns | December 2019 Dear T&G, Dec19_T&
G_28-55.indd 44
As a reader of Tackle & Gun and also a retailer in the fi shing trade I wanted to share some thoughts with you following on from your recent article from a secret person...
The trade is a tough place to be, with all the ‘Big Discounters’ being allowed to devalue brands on a daily basis and to push smaller shops out of the market who can’t match prices. This is only the fault of the companies giving them ‘BIG DISCOUNTS’ for spending more money! Here’s a scenario for those to think
about.
The sales rep has 30 local small shops who do £10,000 a year each - they get no discount. Over time all 30
34 | Tackle & Guns | January 2020
new products. But you continue to carry on discounting until suddenly the money left over after a massive turnover year is non-existent and you go out of business. This is something that I have seen so, so many times over the years. I could name twenty or so businesses that were
Top brands kept
supplying which lead to them being destroyed by big discounters. If one retailer is doing more than 30 per cent of your business through discounting then you are in danger of being boycotted by the rest of the trade and even worse, being dictated to by that retailer.
considered huge in their day that traded this way and are now just a distant memory.
Who’s to blame? The retailer who adopts this approach? Or the supplier who continues to supply and refuses to react to their products/brand being de-valued? This I will leave you, the reader to decide.
I will move on now to the next situation that our trade faces
unless something changes fast… Extinction!
If I look back in time when I was involved in other activities, mainly sport, and my brother got into photography, I remember visiting lots of independent shops for various items of sport attire, boots, shirts, full football kits, footballs. There were three very good shops in my town alone. And in photography it was the same - lots of independent stores to visit. And the thing I remember most was that you had very knowledgeable people running or working in all of these shops. You could discuss anything with them about the subject you were into, expertise on tap and good sound advice. Try and find an independent sports outlet now where you can get expert help or even good solid service, or some proper help deciding what camera to buy. The independent trader does not exist as they once did in these two leisure areas. Why? Because the suppliers misread the signs. Top brands kept supplying which lead to them being destroyed by big discounters. If one retailer is doing more than 30 per cent of your business through discounting then you are in danger of being boycotted by the rest of the trade and even worse, being dictated to by that retailer. Eventually there are only a few large chain stores to service that activity. Gone are all the supporting outposts that used to encourage newcomers to the sport in remote areas, small towns, large villages, it is already happening in our industry. Is it too late? Can we turn things around? Have we even got the interest or strength to do so?
www.tandgmagazine.com
www.tandgmagazine.com
local shops go bust! The rep has now lost £300,000 worth of business, BUT it’s ok because the ‘Big Discounters’ will just fi ll the void.
05/12/2019 08:34:30 Dec19_T&
G_28-55.indd 45
That £300,000 isn’t £300,000 anymore though is it? After they demand their discount which in some cases we’ve heard is up to 30 per cent it could mean that it’s only £210,000!
Now who’s lost out? It’s only basic and simple maths.
Shimano has set the benchmark and we believe all others should follow suit to make it a fair market for everyone. Everyone gets the same discount meaning everyone gets a fair crack at the market.
Then if the ‘Big Boys’ want to keep discounting it’ll mean eventually they’ll
December 2019 | Tackle & Guns | 45
go pop because you don’t have the margins anymore to try and out do everyone else.
NEWS
05/12/2019 08:34:33
Small retailers who supply their local anglers shouldn’t be put in the dark and made to struggle just because they aren’t spending hundreds of thousands of pounds each year! And they shouldn’t have to discount heavily just to try and get a sale so they can feed their families, pay the bills and survive. Something needs doing before every small retailer on the planet goes bust and the tackle companies get hit hard. A fi nal word to the trade: Take care of the little guys because they are probably your bread and butter.
Yours sincerely Mr X
www.tandgmagazine.com
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