Sorry JMB i wasn't trying to sound like I was putting words in your mouth. Just making a silly quote to show how I thought Festools reasoning sounded silly to me. And it is not that I don't believe you are correct in why they are not pushing Protool in the UK.
I guess I simply agree with you and DeanSocial- Protool would compliment Festool very well and how difficult or expensive would it be to start selling them in stores that carry Protool?
Like I said I am naive to the finer details of tool sales I just figured if a company goes to all the trouble of making tools sending them to stores so consumers can buy them seems like the easy and cheap part. Dunno.
The fact that festools ate not stocked in the uk , they are sent to the dealer direct from Germany make me thing it not hard at all to get protocols here but I guess they have a hard time getting dealers to sock the more expensive items.
That distribution model really surprises me!
One thing you have to keep in mind is that a retailer has to be "sold" a proposition to put stuff on their shelves ... most may see stocking Protool as something that would only take sales from their others brands ... so "why bother". This is where the expense comes in - marketing the brand in the channel ... Trained reps, localised marketing material, demo equipment, merchandising displays and so forth.
