Jump to content
 

Farish Due Soon


Crepello
 Share

Recommended Posts

  • RMweb Premium
2 hours ago, montyburns56 said:

I see that the 108 DMUs have gone from being due in April/May to Jun/july and there's also been a £10 increase in the price. Nice.

 

Not that surprising really, plastics have increased in price by about 50% in the last year, most of that in the last 3 months. Then add to that increased shipping costs and the Suez blockage recently, quite easy to understand the increase and delay.

The bad news is, that the price of plastics are likely to go even higher in the coming months, so more increases likely to come...

Link to post
Share on other sites

I find it hard to believe that the cost of plastic is the main driver behind the price of a model, particularly in n gauge?

 

Surely a lot of the cost goes into the intricate assembly & wiring, motorised mechanisms, painting & printing etc.  I've bought other products where there was more plastic in the disposable packaging than there is in an average 'n' gauge vehicle!

Edited by ash39
  • Like 2
  • Agree 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium
20 hours ago, ash39 said:

I find it hard to believe that the cost of plastic is the main driver behind the price of a model, particularly in n gauge?

 

Surely a lot of the cost goes into the intricate assembly & wiring, motorised mechanisms, painting & printing etc.  I've bought other products where there was more plastic in the disposable packaging than there is in an average 'n' gauge vehicle!

 

I wasn't saying the price of plastic was the main driver, but it contributes. I order the plastic for a packaging manufacturer, and our monthly bill has risen from just over £1m, to over £1.6m per month, all within the last three months. Metals prices are also on the up, as is oil.

As tooling is metals, and most of the non-plastic bits of a model are also metal, running on machinery that uses oil, there are other contributory factors. Then don't forget there is a plastic box with a plastic former and liner to protect the models, encased in a card sleeve, which has also risen in price due to shortages of pulp.

Some manufacturers are absorbing some of the price increases in the hope that it is only a short blip, only time will tell....

  • Agree 1
  • Thanks 1
  • Informative/Useful 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • RMweb Premium

Yes, caught me by surprise when I visited my local shop this afternoon (Frizinghall M&R) to find 2 nice blue class 40s waiting for me as I thought that they had been put back again.

 

Turned out to be an expensive afternoon as that wasn't what I'd gone in for ..... but luckily 'the wife' is still at work .... so she'll never know !! :mocking_mini:

Edited by 03060
Correction.
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold
1 hour ago, woodenhead said:

£144 in most retailers, another £100 for the sound card


And it’s worth every penny, sound fitted or otherwise! A fantastic model in all respects. 
 

Tom. 

  • Agree 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, TomE said:


And it’s worth every penny, sound fitted or otherwise! A fantastic model in all respects. 
 

Tom. 

 

Not sure I agree there. The grossly overscale front handrails spoil it for me - almost as bad as those on the recent rats. 

Link to post
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, fezza said:

 

Not sure I agree there. The grossly overscale front handrails spoil it for me - almost as bad as those on the recent rats. 

When they're sat on your railway you don't notice

1 hour ago, John M Upton said:

The new Farish Class 40 is a lovely model but it is not the thick end of £150 lovely...

But if you want a modern loco what else is there to do but pay the money, especially when I sold my old two class 40s back in December so I was at one point Fortyless on a North West based layout - sacrilege.

 

It's quite simple I have to restrict my purchases and perhaps sell some other stuff - don't by a Rapido Co-Bo, do buy a RevolutioN 128, sell Dapol class 26 & 27s.  I sold all my OO locos bigger than an 0-6-0 Tender engine back in December with the exception of a Dukedog, it paid for me to buy a pile of chips and a couple of Next18 locos.

  • Like 2
  • Agree 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold
On 07/04/2021 at 19:41, fezza said:

It's funny how Dapol and Kato don't seem to have a problem with the price of plastic in N gauge. 

 

 

 


They do and it will ultimately affect the price we all pay. Plastic and card prices have all shot up in the last few months (and I can see more price rises to come). Some UK packaging suppliers have had two double digit price rises in the last 6-9 months. 
 

Ultimately that all starts to impact the bottom line and customer prices. An increase in the cost of the goods is amplified by the time the customer pays by things like margin (otherwise manufacturers and retailers go out of business) and VAT. 
 

Comparisons with Kato are not particularly helpful as the quantities they produce are so much greater than Farish by a factor of at least 10 - that has a massive potential impact on pricing as tooling costs become far less important. 

Link to post
Share on other sites

I am not saying plastic isn't a factor, but the reality is raw material costs of plastic are fairly trivial compared to other factors of production when discussing N gauge models. 

 

Manufacturers have spotted that many consumers  have accumulated savings during Covid and that model railways are selling well... that's the main driving factor. 

 

Expect more inflation - and interest rate rises - down the track. 

Link to post
Share on other sites

36 minutes ago, fezza said:

I am not saying plastic isn't a factor, but the reality is raw material costs of plastic are fairly trivial compared to other factors of production when discussing N gauge models. 

 

Manufacturers have spotted that many consumers  have accumulated savings during Covid and that model railways are selling well... that's the main driving factor. 

 

Expect more inflation - and interest rate rises - down the track. 

And they all know there will be a depression coming as well so they will likely take that into account as well.

 

What proof do you have that this is just blatant profiteering, I don't see multi-millionaire model railway CEOs buying football clubs.

  • Funny 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

You won't find the owners of Kader riding bikes. They are a ruthless  business operation - and sometimes not a very ethical one as 188 workers in Thailand found out on 10 May 1993 (one of the world's worst industrial "accidents") 

 

But in simple words when one company charges around 40% more for its products than its main competitor for basically the same product that usually means the one charging higher prices is highly inefficient or it is taking excess profit. And there isn't much evidence of the former from what I have read. 

Link to post
Share on other sites

33 minutes ago, fezza said:

When one company charges around 40% more for its products than its main competitor for basically the same product that usually means the one charging higher prices is highly inefficient or it is taking excess profit.

 

Or they have significantly higher overheads/operating costs . . .

 

 

  • Agree 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

It’s entirely up to Kadar to run their business as they think fit. I was going to buy a rake of Farish Mk2s but, based purely on price, I decided to buy a full length Dapol HST instead. It is up to each individual to decide whether they want to buy items or not. It may well be that the current Farish pricing policy gives them the best return on investment. I would have thought their current prices might adversely affect volumes but by the look of the recent mk2 sales they are doing ok.

 

Thinking about it I used to buy pretty much 100% Farish wagons but over the last few years I have bought mostly Peco together with a few Revolution/Sonic but no Farish.  I don’t know whether many others have “voted with their feet” like me. It wasn’t  a conscious decision, I just sort of went that way. 

Edited by Chris M
  • Agree 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, grahame said:

 

Or they have significantly higher overheads/operating costs . . .

 

 

 

It's unlikely - a lot of these manufacturers are using the same or similar factories. Plus Kader have a lot more collective clout and potential economies of scale than a comparative minnow like Dapol. 

Link to post
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, fezza said:

 

It's unlikely - a lot of these manufacturers are using the same or similar factories. Plus Kader have a lot more collective clout and potential economies of scale than a comparative minnow like Dapol. 

 

It's not just about factories. For example I think you forget that Bachmann has a large office/warehouse/sales, service and support building in, what is effectively a foreign country, to support the small British market. They also seem to have an extensive sales and merchandising staff department that is larger than other manufacturers.

 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

If you compare Dapol's models to Farish you'll see where some of the difference in price is.

 

Take a Dapol Collett and Farish Hawksworth or Bulleid for example.

The underframe detail on the Dapol model isn't as refined, nor are the windows as flushly glazed. With fewer parts to fit the Dapol model should take less time to put together meaning more models per hour for the factory worker putting them together.

 

Similarly, a Dapol Mk3 has a lot parts less to fit than a Farish Mk2, even with the close coupling mechanism and electrical pick-ups.

 

The Farish models are £10-15 more meaning you can have three Dapol coaches for every two Farish ones though.

 

It's also interesting to see how Kato models are put together. As well as being able to spread tooling costs over 10x the number of models they're also very cleverly designed meaning most simply clip together with not that many small separate parts.

 

Which is the right method? My eyes say Farish, my wallet says Kato/Dapol.

 

Steven B.

Edited by Steven B
  • Like 2
  • Agree 3
Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...