The wholesaler

Durham Deano · Apr 25, 2011

Do you think the electrical wholesaler has an easy job? Also why hasn't a spark done good, gathered a bit cash and started one? Would give you a cracking advantage on jobs. They seem to be popping up everywhere must be easy right???

Amp David · Apr 25, 2011

Think you'd need more than a bit of cash to start a wholesaler.

Reason i stopped using my local one was becuase he didn't held much stock. To get prices down to a cheap enough mark he had to place minimum orders of 1k

Durham Deano · Apr 25, 2011

Minimum orders of 1k??? What else would you need apart from a bit cash? The business would run itself SIMPLES

Amp David · Apr 25, 2011

Thats the main issue it ends up being more than a bit of cash.

Phil · Apr 25, 2011

i have seen the cost price of quite a bit of the stock my wholesaler gets me. the mark up is small. now i am not saying they don`t make anything they quite clearly can but as amp david said you would need to move a fair bit of gear. take 2.5mm twin for instance i know for a fact that my branch makes £2 a roll if they are lucky. on the bigger stuff maybe there is more of a mark up but the the costs regarding handling it goes up too.

Durham Deano · Apr 25, 2011

Bad payers?

bugsy · Apr 25, 2011

We went into this ten years ago , to start with to deal with manufacturers you need to hold minimum stock levels ( or you used to ) then you need someone with a lot of experiance to run it( ex CEF seemed the best - yea their crap but their training is good ) then you need decent premises and a van and driver etc etc investment at that time was £ 20k

Durham Deano · Apr 25, 2011

10 years ago? Blimey how much MONEY you reckon it would take these days, Would a 16 or 17 year old with no experience at all work? Just running the branch be ok? Or total disaster, just curious that's all.

adslev · Apr 25, 2011

Alot of contractors I have worked for in the past have sold fittings, cables and odds and ends to the public as a side business, they were buying at wholesale price to an still making a few pound notes! But if it was that simple then everyone would be at it

Newsome3 · Apr 25, 2011

Small ones I've seen local ant lasted long

bugsy · Apr 25, 2011

Durham Deano said:
10 years ago? Blimey how much MONEY you reckon it would take these days, Would a 16 or 17 year old with no experience at all work? Just running the branch be ok? Or total disaster, just curious that's all.

Id give you a month!

KFH · Apr 26, 2011

I use a small local wholeseller. The only problem is his prices are generally more than Screwfix and Toolstation for the popular stuff and he does not always have stuff in stock. Despite being relativly small he still has to have a largish warehouse to keep the stock in. When ordering specials to get the best price I have to wait for him to get a minimum order value together from his supplier. Then when you consider he has to keep it staffed 5 1/2 days a week and let people take holidays, have the cashflow to cover the non/bad payers and compete with the internet I do not envy him. I have a fair amount of experiance in retail/wholesale and I would not touch it.

oldtimer · Apr 26, 2011

like the corner shop the local electrical suppliers are being priced out of the market by the big boys in one respect it is the way of the world but in other ways too big to fail comes to mind would also point out that your local electrician , plumber, etc are getting compitition from £6 a month BG and by these franchise companies that guys are paying £30k to sign up to.