Was It Just A Matter Of Time?

[Rob Allison]

Hello All,

   I was surprised to not see a post yet about this, but here you go, just a matter of time I guess - 

https://usa.minelab.com/

Minelab goes head-to-head with all their distributors and dealer base ..... 

Rob

[RONS DETECTORS MINELAB]

Hopefully the Digital River direct sales option they have allows the military discount as an option.

First was Coiltek then Garrett, Fisher, and Minelab for direct sales. Just glad they follow MAP prices except for Fisher’s fire sale. 😄

[Northeast]

Nothing showing on Minelab Australia's website as yet re: direct sales. 

Makes it bloody hard for a dealer and I feel sorry for you guys. 

With the increase in stocking in big box stores though, I would prefer to buy direct from the manufacturer than from Anaconda or BCF (Oz sort of versions of Cabella's).  

Although I do not have a 'local' dealer, I will continue to support Nenad and JP with my purchases here in Australia due to the quality information they bring to the forum.  I'd encourage anyone to support their local dealer where they can. 

 

[Aureous]

Interesting to see the 2300 is out of stock in the USA..... dunno what to read into that. Withdrawing it from the lineup, ready for a new model? 

[Doc]

I had sort of a sinking feeling when they started referring to Doc' Detecting Supply as a Legacy Dealer.  LOL  😃

Oh well such is life.  Nothing lasts forever.  It makes me wonder why we are even having a Dealer Conference in Australia next year.  Are they going to give us our walking papers?

Doc

[Gerry in Idaho]

Yes, I caught wind of it a couple weeks ago.  It certainly shows how dire they are to make a $.

I'm surprised they are still having the Minelab Worldwide Conference next year, be interesting to see how many dealers actually show up?  Of the 250+ in the US, I expect maybe 25 who attend.

Us old school dealers are a thing of the past.  

No worries, as I seen the writing on the walls a few years ago and have been refocusing my business and goals.

My passion for "the Hunt" will continue.

 

 

[Doc]

2 hours ago, Gerry in Idaho said:

Yes, I caught wind of it a couple weeks ago.  It certainly shows how dire they are to make a $.

I'm surprised they are still having the Minelab Worldwide Conference next year, be interesting to see how many dealers actually show up?  Of the 250+ in the US, I expect maybe 25 who attend.

Us old school dealers are a thing of the past.  

No worries, as I seen the writing on the walls a few years ago and have been refocusing my business and goals.

My passion for "the Hunt" will continue.

 

 

Ben Harvey who was the V.P. of Minelab U.S. Operations.   Is now President of Minelab Worldwide if my information is correct.

Ben is a big picture guy and he has done an absolutely amazing job building the Minelab Brand.  His job is to penetrate the market and capture more than the lion's share of the business.  Remember Minelab is owned by Codan, a publicly traded company.  A company that has shareholders to answer to.  Those shareholders are interested in the bottom line.

While this may not be the optimum situation for dealers; companies have to grow.  They have to produce profit.  They have to increase their capital so they can continue to develop new and innovative products.

So being a dealer, I feel the position from our side.  It's sort of a bitter pill to swallow.  From the position of being a business man who has built two successful businesses, I also understand these moves from a business perspective.

Congratulations to Ben.  He deserves this promotion as he has worked extremely hard to build the Minelab brand and open up new sales channels.

Onward and upward.

Doc

[HardPack]

Manufacturer “direct sales” seem both short sighted and impersonal. I for one will be expecting for some major factory direct discounts. 

[Swegin]

Didn't Minelab try this a few years back?

 

[phrunt]

They had given notice the past couple of years in investor reports this is coming, they were trialing it in Asia before gradually rolling it out everywhere.

You can see their Asian distributor selling direct here.

https://www.minelab-asean.com

Now the US distributor is doing the same, not a surprise at all, only surprised it took them so long.  It should be beneficial to the customer with stock too, as the central distribution hub is where the orders come from, not dealers buying from wholesalers and having limited stock or none at all.  Minelab will have a much greater idea of what's selling and how much of products to hold in stock to ensure they always have stock on hand.  Big dealers like some on here likely kept well stocked, I bet many smaller backyard jobs were a disaster by comparison.

I'm many hours' drive to a dealer, so I have to order online anyway, and I'll buy from whoever is cheapest as to me, it makes no difference who I buy from, I get no benefits from buying from our dealers, no training which wouldn't be viable but they don't do it anyway, no extras thrown in, nothing, so I'd buy from who sells cheapest, and with Minelab taking care of the warranty, not the dealer they're just there to ship the goods to me which anyone can do.    There are probably a lot of people like me around the world.  Minelab taking over their own repairs and ditching 3rd parties was all part of this big plan.

They recently setup a warehouse in NZ, I suspect a small building in an Industrial area, and I think the reason was to do the same, they'll ship direct from the warehouse.

I just hope by cutting out the middle men, or at least competing with them they're able to lower their pricing, as the dealers get their cut, without them the prices should be able to be lowered while maintaining the same profit margin.

I notice they have the fields for discount and promo codes when items are in the cart for checkout.

While it sucks for the dealers on this forum, I hope that their customers remain loyal to them as they do provide a reason to buy from dealers with their training etc, for people like me dealers were of no benefit at all and I'd rather buy direct.