Again, as we set and predicted, Faller has filled for Bankruptcy due to insolvency.
You may read the report on the link given (click on title above and then on translate to read in English).
All these Manufacturers that have enforced the use of Distributors are on the same path. Faller was not an exception.
The prices set by Walthers in USA to Dealers of Faller was more than a 30% higher than prices Dealers can get in Germany and many times, even higher than those we sell to our end users.
We have been buying Faller for over 15 years direct in Germany and we always told them to deal direct with their Dealers instead to go trough distributors, that only make things to go wrong, prices higher, slower service and always in not enough quantity.
The recent bankruptcies of Marklin, Roco, Fleischmann, Jouef, Lima, Rivarossi, and many others must be a clear sign that Manufacturers are doing something wrong.
What are they doing wrong? Not hearing what Dealers say and not taking care of the needs of Dealers and end users.
Having conditions of sale that are not equal to each Dealer is also part of the problem. If a Company does not have an equally and fair price for ALL its Dealers, is directly going to hell, because Dealers form alliances using the one with best conditions to get what they need, but normally this will be less purchases than if they go direct to the Factory and all have the same price.
The export department Manager at Faller has been for many years a blind non sense incompetent person that never saw that Markets like ours (America) was open for millions of Customers if only we cut have direct supply of goods at good price without having to use any Distributor to make more affordable their products to end users and also, produce items that are more American look alike as those made by Cornerstone.
This last Faller notice concern us very much, as we saw for some time now, that they were discontinuing a bunch of stuff and the new items were very few and not interesting at all.
At this pace, soon the European Train Market will be over and I believe that the hobby will have tough times to model in good quality using products from German Manufacturers.
Hope Faller can come out soon of this mess they (and their Export Incompetent Manager) have created.
We still have VOLLMER that we believe is even better in quality for buildings even when they do not have the large selection that Faller had, but the Company seems to be held in a more open view of how business are done in the 21st. Century open global markets.
It is such a shame about Faller (and Marklin) and their bankruptcy. Actually the Faller news was a surprise as I hadn't heard a peep before about difficulties. I hope that both can reorganize and stay in business, they were two of the best. Prices were higher than North American manufacturers, but when you model European you need the best, and you do get a quality product. I do have to disagree with you on Cornerstone. I still prefer European manufacturers over North American, the quality and workmanship is significantly better, though again you do pay for it. I'm not into N.A. modeling, so Cornerstone and other manufacturer products aren't for me anyway.
ReplyDeleteAs for Walthers, well, not much to say there. Personally I can't stand the company, their prices are higher and no one needs a middleman. It was a dumb move on Marklin's part to go that route and only added cost to the product. I prefer the few dealers that I use, and also eBay for the few extras.
I'm still building my layout, buying here and there, and now I wonder if I'm going to be able to continue. If Marklin, Faller, Roco, et al, can't emerge from bankruptcy successfully then what is one to do? I'd hate to sell what I have, but I really don't want to mix in other inferior (plastic/cheap) products from other markets. It just won't be the same without the originals like Marklin and Faller on the bench.