Thanks to Brandon for pointing out what I was thinking this morning. The bright side to the increase for those of us who have a few Festools is since they hold their value well, they will now be worth more than they were. Of course by the time I can afford my Domino and CT they will cost quite a bit more. Unless craigslist is as kind to me as it has been in the past.

--Mark

United States Festool sales likely accounts for a small percentage of Festool Global sales.  The US market at the moment is not large enough for Festool to make that investment. 

That's why it's in everyones interest that Festool USA sell more tools.   Then they can begin to expand their US catalog to offer more tool options.  [/quote]

Wow, it's killing me to be nice and not comment any more on this one    
[/quote]

 Festool USA  is a fast growing and large market for Festool. They feel they are not even close, nowhere near close, to attaining the market share potential here.  I would not be surpised if somewhere down the road, the tools for Festool USA will be manufactured here.

 Bob

For those of us who are (or were) interested, I wonder what the mythical & mysterious Kapex will cost?....

Bob, I wholeheartedly agree. Too often times we as Americans get these horribly wrong, crazy and ludicrous ideas planted into our heads that America has become inferior and the economy is in crisis. Nothing could be further from the truth. The underlying economic principles in our nation are very strong therefore our economy can ebb and flow with events. The elasticity of the general market, its up's and down cycles is what creates wealth. If the market always went up we would all lose money.

I guess that perhaps there is some major concerns with cost of labor and productivity in the German culture. If Festool like many other World corporations wish to stay within the worlds oldest free market economy they will need to be competitive. I for one do not believe that they wanted to increase their prices over and over as they have for the past several years. That is not good for business anywhere. The facts are that many foreign owned corporations are seeing the value of being in the US as manufacturers. Americans typically work far longer hours and have far fewer vacations and are more easily entered into the workplace than in many European countries which increases our business productivity and the workers wealth. The German work system, like many European countries, is entirely inflexible which is part of the reason their economy is suffering from high unemployment and is unable to deal with downturns or recessions very well. Hopefully Americans will see virtue in self-reliance by building personal success instead of government becoming our nanny and ruining our way of life.

Any tool will take a certain amount of time to pay for itself and then start making me profit (or extra profit) the TS55 (had for about a year) has paid for itself about 20 times so far. The domino is tougher to calculate since my shop would be set up very differently without it (I'd be cutting mortices and tennons or finding another alternative) but has paid for itself 3 or 4 times. If prices went up (or more to the point when they do go up) the tools must still pay for themselves.

By the same token, I use a reciprocating saw from Harbor Freight (I pay $15.00 for those when on sale) and would not dream of buying a festool reciprocating saw should one become available, at $15.00 I don't care what happens to the tool, if someone leaves it on site, breaks it, drowns it cutting plastic waste pipe under someones sink, whatever, for $15.00 it's the perfect tool for the job (I'm bragging on this little gem to show I'm not totally hooked on the green side).

I guess my point is (or one of them) that it's the middle of the road tools that are expensive, something honestly expensive (but very well built) and something honestly cheap both have a home in my shop, But the current crop of (for example) B&D's pretending to be Dewalt's are not welcome (I can't afford a $100 circular saw, but I CAN afford a $440.00 circular saw)

No one's thrilled to be paying more, but these price changes seem reasonable.

Festool could announce, say, an across-the-board 15% increase, but instead there's a variation from item to item.  This suggests careful and detailed thinking about the pricing.

Of course the exchange rate doesn't help.

The cost of oil affects plastic items, and more subtly, everything shipped.

There are a few changes, such as that CT handle that seem odd.  Given the apparent item-by-item evaluation, I wonder what caused that particular increase.  I can imagine them crunching the numbers in Wendlingen and noticing the handle price just as we did.  "Hoo boy! Are we going to hear about this one!" (In German, of course.)

Ned

My ATF 48-tooth blade is getting dull.  I recall thinking that the prices of these blades made them disposable.  I remember them being just over $30 and figured it would cost around $25 to sharpen one.  So I figured I'd just buy a new one ... hmmm, it's been a while since I've looked at the price of those things.  Since I've got a dull WWII also, I'll include this in my shipment to forrest for a sharpening.

Yep, I just got an email from Shane Holland on the matter. The McFeely's page has been updated as well. Here is Shane's email:

Festool Dealers,

 

I noticed that you have downloaded the 2008 Price List from the Festool Dealer Portal (FDP).  It has come to our attention that there was an error in the 2008 catalog price for the CT Handle (452 921).  The price should be $70 and has been updated in the price list on the FDP.  Please make the appropriate corrections in the list you downloaded or visit the FDP to download the updated list.

 

Our sincere apologies for the error.

 

 

Shane Holland

_________________________

Festool USA

Tooltechnic Systems, LLC

400 N. Enterprise Blvd.

Lebanon, IN 46052

United States Festool sales likely accounts for a small percentage of Festool Global sales.  The US market at the moment is not large enough for Festool to make that investment. 

That's why it's in everyones interest that Festool USA sell more tools.   Then they can begin to expand their US catalog to offer more tool options. 

[/quote]

Yours is an interesting proposition.  I'm doing my little part on the slippery slope, and will probably buy more to beat the price increases.  Japanese and European car makers built plants in USA first to avoid import duties, and later to take advantage of lower cost skilled laborers in USA.   I have heard BMW execs state directly that they came to take advantage of lower costs in USA as their market in USA continued to grow.  I see no reason why Festool couldn't benefit from a factory in USA or another North American location.  I am presuming their market share will grow as people become more familiar with their products unique features.

Dave R.

Yours is an interesting proposition.  I'm doing my little part on the slippery slope, and will probably buy more to beat the price increases.  Japanese and European car makers built plants in USA first to avoid import duties, and later to take advantage of lower cost skilled laborers in USA.   I have heard BMW execs state directly that they came to take advantage of lower costs in USA as their market in USA continued to grow.  I see no reason why Festool couldn't benefit from a factory in USA or another North American location.  I am presuming their market share will grow as people become more familiar with their products unique features.

Dave R.
[/quote]

 Dave,

 I am not sure of, or privy to, Festool's sales, profits and long range plans, but Festool USA is Festool's fasted growing market (I know, if you sell 5 tools last year and 10 this year, you can claim your sales increased 100% ). I would bet  Festool USA is in the top 5 of Festool's markets and they have not even begun to reach anything near their potential here. I also would not be surprised (again, IMHO) if Festool did start building plants here within 5 years.

 Bob

Bob, I think five years sounds optimistic, I could be wrong. I see a couple obstacles Festool may face in the US market in the next few years. The first is as we all have already talked is the declining dollar. The next thing that may really hurt Festool here is DeWalt and Makita with the introduction of their new line of saws. DeWalt is taking the system approach also with the router on the guide rail and I think Makita will soon follow suit. I bet we will see more and more tools outfitted with much improved dust collection from all of the competition. With some of Festool's uniqueness removed by the other brands it is going to be that much harder to grow. And when the competition's new tools hit Amazon, HomeDepot and Lowe's it will be an uphill battle. Don't get me wrong, some people will see through the marketing hype of DeWalt, Makita and whoever else comes in, they'll know the better value Festool offers. My guess is the new plunge cuts will cost nearly as much as the Festool but nowhere near the quality. With brand loyalty and the promise of the best price by the big retailers the US masses will flock to the competition. One other issue Festool will face, if the US economy slides downward the high priced tools will be the first things people stop buying. 

 Brice,

 Good points, but time will tell, I guess.

 Bob

Brice,

The declining dollar will increase the odds that Festool might manufacture here. As was pointed out earlier, American manufacturing is still alive and well. We are losing many more jobs to efficiency and productivity gains than to cheap labor. At one time we were all scared that Japan was going to erase our manufacturing base. It took two generations after WWII for them to go from cheap labor and cheap products to expensive labor and great products, two concepts not necessarily related to each other but occurring anyway. It is now cheaper for the Japanese to manufacture here and the quality has not suffered at all for it. The Euro makers have followed suit as well. My suspicion is that China will level out over the next 10/15 years as well. The speed at which things can happen here is an advantage to foreign manufacturers willing to move here. Being closely involved in the automotive manufacturing sector it never ceases to amaze me that US based makers are so eager to leave when their more successful foreign competition is moving in. Sure, there are many issues such as legacy costs and such but the US can be and still is a great place to manufacture high-end products, especially for a well organized and long view company like Festool.

I sure wish they felt that way about Canada.  You people in the USA don't know know just how good you have it when purchasing Festool products.  As far as I can tell, the Festool USA prices are by far the lowest in the world.

I know the price increase will affect some of my purchasing decisions, I will probably not get the OF1400, since its price at $405 is stretching things a bit, at $450 it is out as an option. So I have started to consider other options.

The DTS400 price increase is minimal and the cost is still OK.

I realize that much of the benefit of the Festool tools is the system that ties them all together, such as the rails. I looked at the TS 55 and didn't like it, so I went in a different direction. Many of the other tool manufacturers are providing dust collection on their tools. I like my Festool sander mainly because it doesn't vibrate as much as my 5" PC sander. The dust collection was similar when connected to my Fein vac.

Mike