All Things Mk5 > APR Zone
APR stage 2+ v3.0
Keith@APR:
--- Quote from: djhorace on March 07, 2012, 02:52:32 pm ---So what you are saying there is that with APR, you are paying for the name?
Tests prove the THS to be at least as good as the APR :laugh:
--- End quote ---
No, not all. Is that what my Apple example meant to you? I apologize as I did not intend for it to sound that way. I was just using them as an example of an American company that has to charge more for their products in the UK than in America.
Tests? Interesting, could you share the results with me? Linky?
djhorace:
I work for a US company in a UK office and my customers are all round Europe. We make most of our products in the US and initial distribution is from the US and latterly through regional offices/distribution centres.
Our list price is the same the world over (difference in exchage rates and any applicable taxes being the difference). Our customers will know very quickly if the Houston office supply something more cheaply than the Singapore office and are willing to buy from the Houston office to save some cash. It therefore makes perfect sense to have the same prices everywhere. Why should APR be different? Why not change the pricing policy if people are blatently getting round fixed high UK prices to save some money, then punish them with the old warranty malarky? To use a local term, thats pretty hard necked for a company that left the UK high and dry and are trying to use their name and US reputation to come back and charging 42% more for the same hardware thats available in the US to cover "costs".
djhorace:
--- Quote from: Keith@APR on March 07, 2012, 02:56:00 pm ---No, not all. Is that what my Apple example meant to you? I apologise as I did not intend for it to sound that way. I was just using them as an example of an American company that has to charge more for their products in the UK than in America.
--- End quote ---
I have the benefit of travelling with my work - so far this year I have been to Romania, Poland 3 times, Norway, USA, Holland, Germany and France. Last year I was in over 20 countries. I go to the Apple store in most places if I have the chance to compare prices as I always have people asking me to buy an iPad2 at lower prices. Now what I have found by doing this is that apple prices while being different between the likes of USA and UK, don't list local tax with the RRP where the UK price does.
Therefore a basic iPad2 at $499 plus say 10% state tax = $550 or at 60p to $1 = £330 vs £399 for the same thing in the UK. Thats a 20% difference. You guys are charging more than double that as a difference :signLOL:
djhorace:
By the way, I think its great you guys are back in the UK as competition encourages better products and keener prices for consumers. Monopolies serve no-one well. I wish you all the best in your UK venture and seriously hope you take a look at your hardware pricing just as you have with your software pricing. I know there is no way in hell I would pay £1k for an intercooler when a £600 one would do the same thing and gets great reviews, regardless of the badge/part number on the side of it not saying APR.
Keith@APR:
--- Quote from: djhorace on March 07, 2012, 03:07:01 pm ---I work for a US company in a UK office and my customers are all round Europe. We make most of our products in the US and initial distribution is from the US and latterly through regional offices/distribution centres.
Our list price is the same the world over (difference in exchage rates and any applicable taxes being the difference). Our customers will know very quickly if the Houston office supply something more cheaply than the Singapore office and are willing to buy from the Houston office to save some cash. It therefore makes perfect sense to have the same prices everywhere. Why should APR be different? Why not change the pricing policy if people are blatently getting round fixed high UK prices to save some money, then punish them with the old warranty malarky? To use a local term, thats pretty hard necked for a company that left the UK high and dry and are trying to use their name and US reputation to come back and charging 42% more for the same hardware thats available in the US to cover "costs".
--- End quote ---
The simple answer is we don't have enough margin in our products at the selling price they are offered for in the States. To equalize prices around the world we would have to significantly raise the prices in America. I think this is a legacy issue from when APR was very small. I do see how people could think we are trying to profiteer from international sales but that is simply not the case.
If you notice, the only hardware prices that are consistent round the world in this industry are from companies like ABT and MTM. I think the problem began when American companies began significantly undercutting the German tuners in North America. APR came about around that time in the late 90's and followed suit of what the current market environment in the USA was like at the time.
The automotive industry has always been the exception to global pricing though. For example, a brand new Golf R in the USA costs $36,000 or 22,900GBP. That same Golf R over here goes for 40,000GBP+ or $62, 860+.
I don't understand this "left the UK high and dry" sentiment I've seen around.
Our importer chose to do business with a competitor which left the UK market without support for a period of time while we put together a better solution. APR never "pulled out" of the UK market.
The UK market is so important to us that we decided to open an office and I volunteered to come and head it up. I left my family, friends, pets and all I know to come over here. And as you know, moving or travelling abroad seems really cool and exciting but its very difficult, time consuming and stressful.
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