Look into stuff like exchange rates and the costs of making boards. Try to see a link with the cost of crude oil. Try to see how much boards cost in the USA or in a European country and then corrolate this to Australian prices. Hopefully you can then see a relationship between Australian prices and those overseas with exchange rates and hopefully be able to establish other factors that are common to all markets.

I read somewhere there was a big strike at the Cobra factory a year or so ago. Perhaps the price of labour has gone up a bit there.

@sailpilot,

I think you might be right on the money there. I wouldn't be surprised to see 2 or more board makers disappear from the market by the time 2010 comes around. I don't think the fact that they increased prices by $200 will have a lot to do with it though it will be mainly due to economic factors.

Re price development in the windsurf market, you will actually find that sail prices haven't increased that much over the last 10 to 15 years. I think the arrival of budget brands like Gun Sails have put kept prices down. This hasn't happened in the board segment to the same extend because of the complexity of making a board compared to manufacturing a sail.

From what I have heard from a guy in Germany who used to own a windsurf store but now has gone into distribution, Cobra charges about US$350 per board all depending on what materials you pack in.

It's all a margins game. Let's say cobra increases the cost by 10%. Assuming no one in the supply chain absorbs the increase but instead hands on a 10% increase based on their sale price you end up with RRP going up by 10%.

The problem with this equation though is that the windsurf stores will suffer the most as they deal with the market directly. And the market will determine if they are prepared to pay the prices or not... simple supply and demand issue.

So back to the original question re price increases... do a simple comparison for different markets:
Price 20, 15, 10, 5 years ago and today
Price 20, 15, 10, 5 year ago and today inflation adjusted
compared the different market taking changes in exchange rate into consideration
don't forget to consider changes in import and sales taxes

I think you will find that boards actually didn't increase in price along with inflation which would mean in relative terms boards actually got cheaper over time. Also consider that demand has dropped over time which would also have an impact on price.

Economics is great, unless you are the consumer

Wonder if new season gear is gonna get cheaper, AUD back up to almost US 80c. I doubt it thou, theres usually someone along the supply chain swallowing the profits. Thats probably the main problem, being in AUS, I wonder how many hands a piece of kit goes through before it gets to the consumer, and they all need a cut of the profit. Prices inflated by inefficient supply chain? Anyway, I suppose thats the reason why the actual production cost of a board is such a mystery.

Someone should pose a board building company, and approach Cobra about building a production run of boards... wonder what the ex.Factory price per board would be.

I'm guessing the market in Australia is pretty small so competition is fairly limited. Sounds like an overseas holiday/gear purchase trip needs to be planned

Hi, Bubs,

Sadly, I still have a lot of info re prices back in the 90's. I'll see if I can dig something out for you, but if so, you'll have to e-mail me $20 for my time spent when I post the results.

During the late '70's, I can recall my Big Boss spending about $1600 for a 25 kg. Windsurfer One-style board, complete with fibreglass mast, lash-on boom and (about 5.0m) sail (high-tech it was too, with 2 x half-battens and being capable of rolling around the mast when not in use). Problem was that he was 5 foot nothing tall and weighed about 100 kg. If he ever got onto the board, dogs would have howled, children would have cried and the fish would have swum to other places, fearing a fall-in. The sail came complete with draft-movement, right from the mast to the outhaul, at no extra cost!

Suggest you see what $1600 is in today's money.

Swoosh: years and years ago, a supply chain for some boards was this:

Distributor for Australia buys in new-season's boards (let's say direct from a European country), about 1 month before the season starts. Distributor then goes to state dealers advising that he has stock of model such-and-such and the price to the dealer is X$. The distributor would also advise a Recommended Retail Price, which the board would be sold at during the season.

With the Internet and e-mail, it is now very easy for people to rapidly check prices within a country at various dealers and also to see what prices are being asked for the same product in O/S countries. IMHO, we don't do too badly, here in Oz.

Regards,

WindmanV

The price of carbon jumped dramatically a while ago, due to the aviation industry using virtually all that could be made. The story was that, money was going to be spent on more factories to make carbon, and after that the price would come down, but don't know if that has happened.

Wow loads of reply's!!!

Cheers for all advice.... will do some looking round and get started sometime (date yet to be decided). Any more info much appreciated, should be a reasonably interesting assignment.

Cheers
Hamish

stehsegler said...
[Re price development in the windsurf market, you will actually find that sail prices haven't increased that much over the last 10 to 15 years. I think the arrival of budget brands like Gun Sails have put kept prices down. This hasn't happened in the board segment to the same extend because of the complexity of making a board compared to manufacturing a sail.

Its not complexity... its the labour cost. You pretty much cant make a modern design sail without using 3D-sail-modelling software, you can however make a board mostly just using the tools lying around the backyard.

From what I have heard from a guy in Germany who used to own a windsurf store but now has gone into distribution, Cobra charges about US$350 per board all depending on what materials you pack in.

It's all a margins game. Let's say cobra increases the cost by 10%. Assuming no one in the supply chain absorbs the increase but instead hands on a 10% increase based on their sale price you end up with RRP going up by 10%.

I think you mean, if cobra puts the price up 10% on $350, then the RRP should jump $35, not $250 (on an RRP of $2500).