DEMON Cycles |
It wasn't all that many years ago that if you wanted a decent frame you'd wend your way to a small backstreet engineering shop where a frame-building guru wearing a brown warehouse coat would measure various parts of your anatomy and discuss your preferences for angles and colours.
Over a twelve week period the expert would use his thirty years of experience to make and finish your frame. The end result would be a masterpiece of Reynolds tubing, gold-edged lugs and a superb finish. Knowing it was hand-built and finished, you didn't mind spending a week's wages on it. And then came Aluminium frames and these were followed by carbon fibre and mass-manufacture.
And most of this mass manufacture now takes place in the Far East. Go along to your frame builder now and buy the latest piece of lightweight carbon weave technology and yes - it might have the stickers of a UK frame builder on the side - but 95% of these will have come off a production line in Taiwan.
I've got no problems with that. It's how business in the 21st century is run and how the global economy operates. The only issue I have with this is that somebody is making shed loads of money out of your hard-earned cash - and it's not the chap in the Far East.
When I started looking for a carbon frame for myself it seemed to me that the prices here in the UK were disproportionately high. So I contacted a number of Far East manufacturers and as I own an existing UK company I'm now officially importing a small range of carbon components. These are for sale at what I call "realistic" prices. Yes, I'm making a profit (I might be marginally insane as opposed to downright certifiable!), but not the humungous mark-ups that some of the UK frame builders are charging for the priviledge of putting their own stickers on a blank frame, possibly from the same production line.
During the past few months the Pound has taken a real hammering against the most currencies, in particular - the Dollar. And you can guess what currency Far Eastern manufacturers work in. Yes - the Dollar. Fortunately, I got in a large order just before things went totally pear-shaped so I've got items in stock at 2008 prices. I truly dread to think what the 2009 prices will look like if the cost of imports continues to rise at such an alarming rate.
These components will be sold using the Ebay Shops channel Click here for the Demon Cycles Ebay shop. My reasoning on that method is that:-
- It's a 24/7 operation.
- I know exactly how much each sale will cost me.
- I can control the rate at which items are available for sale. Whilst it would be nice to sell 20 frames each day, I want to avoid "back-orders" or huge peaks in demand.
- It supports my founding principle of operation. I will only sell an item that I have here and now in storage. An item will only go into the shop becauase I have it. Every item put up for sale will be sitting in storage carrying a tag with the Ebay reference number on it. Pay for it today with Paypal, I will retieve it from store and you can come round this evening to pick it up if you wish.
More about my company and importing:- WLS Ltd has traded in the UK since 1996 and it has been fully registered with Companies House, Customs and Excise etc, etc since inception. All items are imported through the official channels and so all Import Duties and VAT are fully accounted for. With WLS Ltd being VAT registered, all prices quoted are inclusive of VAT.
Thanks for visiting. If you have any thoughts, advice or comment please email me at richard.todd@demoncycles.co.uk
Cheers,
Todj