Okay i have had a response from Stihl,
here it is.
Quote:
"Hello Simon,
Thank you for your question regarding the price of STIHL products in Australia.
As you have written, the price of STIHL products varies around the world according to various costs. In Australia we have a suggested retail price for our products and by law we cannot dictate the price that our dealers sell our products for. I do acknowledge that the dealers in general will sell the product at about the recommended retail price.
Unlike our companies in the USA and Europe we do not have any manufacturing facilities in Australia. We are required to import our products and incur the shipping and holding costs of doing this.
The cost of the product to us is finally determined by the price we are charged from our supplier and all cost’s to land the product. We then allow for an acceptable margin to cover the cost of running our business and providing a profit to our owners.
As we only sell our products through the servicing dealer network there must be the opportunity for the dealers to cover the cost of running their business.
I suspect that you know all of this already. I am unable to give you specific costs and margins however I assure you we do not inflate our prices to make high margins. I believe that this is obvious if you compare our prices to our legitimate competitors in Australia. We are in a market driven business and must remain competitive to sell product.
To put it another way, if our legitimate competitors could drop their prices and take us out of business I am sure they would.
Your support of STIHL products is appreciated and I hope that it continues. I wish you well in your own business.
Regards
Ken Collier
Commercial Manager"
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There are more holes in this response than swiss cheese!
I will think on it for a day or so then respond.
In the meantime if anyone else can think of good arguements to Stihls response then please post them and i will include them in my next email to Stihl.
