Screw fix (uk)

[Llap Goch]

I understand the commercial decision to project your tools via a national DIY chain from an accountants perspective but question the motives towards loyal dealers.

A well respected local (to me) tool hire company recently began selling Festools to have the rug pulled from underneath them by the Screwfix announcement. Screwfix, and I will mind my B and Q's, are exactly 300 metres away and walking that distance will save any prospective Kapex purchaser about £200 as the local dealer, despite being offered introduction discount levels, cannot hope to compete with the purchasing clout of a national DIY chain.

Were I the MD of the local company I would be incensed and inviting Tooltechnics to remove their display and wash my hands of them. It is a dilution of the exclusivity of the brand and I too question whether the recent and, let's be kind, flawed introduction of the sander offer in CONUS, is the beginning of the end of Festool as a premium brand which depended on loyal customers who recognised the quality of the tools and were prepared to pay for them, to a 'pile them high and sell them cheap(er)' operation.

Perhaps a good move for the customer but a kick in the teeth for the dealers who have stuck by the brand through thick and thin and could now see potential sale losses.

Screwfix today..........Coming to a Home Depot or Walmart near you tomorrow.

As for Axminster tools, they will continue to get my business as they are an ethical, professional and courteous company.

 

[Rip Van Winkle]

I don't really have a dog in this fight since I don't live or work in the UK, but a few observations from past experiences.

In regards to ScrewFix selling the TS55 without the guide rail. Makita sells the SP6000 plunge saw without the guide rail in the USA. I'm not sure whether Makita does the same in the UK as well. Selling a festool type plunge saw without a guide rail to someone who has never used one probably isn't the best idea, but there are good reasons to be able to purchase a saw without the extras.

The included 1400mm guide rail isn't the best length for certain cutting situations, such as 5' by 5' plywood, or diagonal cuts. Buying a saw without a guide rail allows you to purchase a guide rail in the size you need, or substitute it out for a holey rail if desired. Also, there may be users who just purchase the saw for dedicated tasks, like jamb cuts, or shadow gaps, or other cuts were you might not need or want to use a rail.

There is also the possible need to purchase a spare saw. If your saw winds up out if order, due to breakage, either from a careless user, or an electrical problem, or some other issue, being able to purchase a saw without the extras will give you a spare saw at a significantly lower cost vs buying a whole new kit. The cost of all the accessories for a tool can be more than the cost of the tool, and it's unlikely your whole saw kit will wind up out of order at the same time as a saw problem, unless you get robbed, or your tools get blown away in a hurricane.

In the USA, a similar situation happenned with Hilti. Hilti was mainly a brand sold by specialty construction suppliers, to major construction companies. Outside of these markets Hilti wasn't in many cases well known. When Hilti made an arangement with Home Depot to sell Hilti tools in their stores, the tools were exposed to a much larger audience. It slso made it much easier to purchase some of the Hilti accessories, and specialty fasteners, since Home Depot had much better hours than the Hilti stores. You still couldn't purchase some Hilti tools or accessories directly at Home Depot, but it did give a person a much better chance of playing with the tool displays without a salesperson looking over your shoulder. On the negative, Hilti did wind up cheapening a bunch of the tool models over time, dropping features, and moving the production of many of the lower cost models to China.

 

[LJD]

I know many Festool Plunge saw  owners that use the makita rails as they prefer them and their price !

This whole thread is very very interesting. There is and always will be a element of "FSS" (Festool snob syndrome)  by those that would rather die than be seen with another colour systainer/case  in their rack etc !
Its like Camera People only thinking "Leica" make the best , or Hifi nuts (And they are !) who insist on a one brand system like NAIM  etc .Rather than buying what truly is the best component in their budget etc. I know many Festool owners that seem to be "Tool polishers" .I also know people with a right old bunch of stuff , that are working on £50k kitchens .Its not the tools in most cases , its the skill of the person using them and their ability to see through the "FOG" !! (cant believe i just wrote  that !)

I plan on buying at least 4 more festool tools soon. My budget might mean "second hand"  or from FFX/Axminsters etc who are 100% excellent .I live in North LOndon near Finchley  we have a festool dealer near.But i would rather go to B&Q than spend my money there .I have never known such a "retail attitude" and they have had it for years . 

I doubt anyone expects a min wage sales assistant in Screwfix to offer advice .And why should they ?  some trade places are not giving advice as they no longer wnat any issues with customers blaming them for "wrong advice etc" ! . The public can get all the info they need from the Net, shows , forums and even "proper" dealers. But if the price is a lot cheaper, they will always go for the bottom line . If i get good service and the item is £10.00 more per £100 cost .I dont mind .I will be loyal. But after that, my pocket hurts too much .

 

[nickao]

Actually I use the Makita saw on the Festool rails.

 

[Maximus]

It is interesting times, I agree Screwfix have their place and have done an amazing job of getting to where and what they are today, I don’t think we can argue against that by any means.

I am of course going to be slightly biased and wary of them taking on Festool for obvious reasons, my opinion is also going to be from our company’s point of view rather than so much an end-user, although I do believe they overlap massively.

There are some very large dealers out there, including us that have taken the Festool brand to the next level of availability in the UK, I personally have hand chosen every SKU that we stock on the shelf here (around 1350 currently) so that customers can have their strange backing pad or Titan sandpaper delivered next day to keep them working as Festool do not hold UK stock. This takes a massive amount of product knowledge and awareness about what’s needed and what works with what, not just which product has the most profit in it. Also a very hefty financial investment is involved which is why we are one of, if not `THE` top UK dealer.

The current price points of a lot of the products has also made a massive difference to where Festool is today within the UK, and their growth curve. Let’s face it would you pay £526 for a TS55? And who has swallowed this price drop over the years? Us dealers, not Festool UK.

I really don’t feel Screwfix are going to be able to put that kind of time and effort into a very specific and at times complicated range of accessories to be able to class Festool as a `System` which is what it deserves to be called. This along with the product knowledge we have in house here is far beyond anything you are likely to find in the UK when it comes to buying a Festool product. We now have live chat on our website which is manned either personally by myself or my brother for direct customer help about Festool, how can Screwfix offer that kind of customer experience? The experience Festool aim for and promote?

They can’t, so what can they offer? Well customer awareness, and that’s what Festool are aiming at by bringing them on board, one single reason. As Screwfix like we all know are box shifters (very good ones at that) and Festool are losing their small dealers.

This in-itself I do believe is a good thing, as the brand does need more promoting and customer awareness of how good it is.

Within the big boy powertool market it is a small fish, but at what cost? It’s very apparent after only a few days of them having the brand that they have favourable rates and can offer certain products cheaper to end users. Again this is wonderful to the person who wants to save a few quid, and don’t we all? It’s no secret our company has grown on selling at low margins and maximising buying potential that is available to all dealers, as much as any of the big players, but that’s where similarities end, we offer the full package when it comes to Festool, and do not get any special terms.

I have been informed Screwfix are not supporting the Festool vouchers that are being sent out to end users directly by Festool UK at the moment, to me that is not helping the loyal customer or being a true dealer.

The issue I see is what happens if the top 30 SKU`s are reduced online to a rate that no other dealer can compete with due to these special rates? These top SKU`s are needed to be sold to hit the huge yearly target Festool demand from their dealers, with this being an impossibility the current large dealers may decide to focus on other brands and slowly the strange backing pad or Titan sandpaper that was once next day is very hard to source as the Screwfix outfit does not involve itself with specials or even worse - parts of the Festool systems that make it such an amazing brand.

You have to ask yourself why have Festool allowed them currently to be able to market a TS55 without a rail? How does that give the end user the experience of what the brand is really about?!?

Festool is a premium brand - like Peroni beer and you don’t see that in Weatherspoon’s  [eek]

Food for thought, and as always only time will tell……

I for one applaud you for all your dedication and effort! I buy a lot of my Festool stuff from you, for the following positive reasons:

1)  Dedicated Festool site with everything under one "roof"
2)  Great prices
3)  Superb customer service / knowledge
4)  Go West Country!  I support local businesses.
5)  You're engaged with FOG so I know you listen & care.

There are difficulties with your site though, that I'd like to share with you as constructive feedback:

It isn't the easiest to navigate.  And the search tool does not work brilliantly either I'm afraid.  It is a struggle sometimes to locate what I want.  But I persevere out of loyalty.  You might be losing one or two orders from others though.

Right, I'm off to assemble another order.  Hmmm - case in point:  the plastic container set is listed on the Systainer Inserts page but the individual containers are on a different page, filed under Accessories for Systainers.  And if you type "container set" into your sites search bar a drop down list shows 8 products, none of which is a container set!  Press the search button to do a full search and it returns ZERO results though  [doh] See what I mean?  [scratch chin]