Opinions on Outdoor Furniture product

[burwoodman]

I'm looking for some PH opinion on a product that I deal in. Namely Outdoor Rattan Furniture.

I am sure most of you know what it is. You may not know that the £1,000 dining table sets and sofas are simply junk made from PVC and require assembly. You can pay £6k for a decent sofa set or dining set and anything of a reasonable quality is around £4,000.

My business originated in New Zealand and Australia where you have to produce this product using the very best materials because our UV is so high anything other than German Rattan fibre will fall apart in 12 months. I also use marine reticulated foam due to the high rain fall and Italian and US fabrics which won't fade or rot.

The market at the £1k level is huge with the top 5 vendors in the UK alone shifting approx 2000 containers annually. There are probably 50 vendors selling the 4-6k settings with the majority at the low end of that range. So the market at the higher end is still large, maybe 5% by volume and 15% by value.

My question to all of you is, would you just buy the 1k version as 'it is all the same' or would you research such a spend and appreciate that you have to spend a fair bit more. Incidentally my product is objectively as good as the 6k product but will sell for about 3k. Our model is be half the price of our competitors. The reason I am asking is because I'm unsure whether I will just pull in sales from the 4-6k buyers alone or is there potential to pull a reasonable percentage of the 1k buyers.

[burwoodman]

perhaps the business section is more appropriate-Mods please feel free to close

thanks

[thinfourth2]

If its as good as you think sell it for 7K

People are thick

[Tumbler]

I think our weather has alot to do with it, we don't have great summers, therefore the cheap stuff does the job.

[JABB]

My experience with garden furniture is in the UK, people tend to think throw away for the most part. There are a few top end companies out there, but getting an unknown brand into their territory will be hard going.

[Simpo Two]

Rattan is cane, no? It will rot. Everything is rotting after last winter, even bricks...

[burwoodman]

JABB said:

My experience with garden furniture is in the UK, people tend to think throw away for the most part. There are a few top end companies out there, but getting an unknown brand into their territory will be hard going.

What brands do you consider top end

[Big Al.]

burwoodman said:

perhaps the business section is more appropriate-Mods please feel free to close

thanks

Duplicate thread now posted here

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...