Barefaced Price Increase - Are They Still Worth It?

[Kev]

Energy costs alone must be crippling small businesses, several stores in my town have shut over it, including a really quite popular butchers.  

[fretmeister]

1 hour ago, Kev said:

Thing is, why is it never an option for a business to make a bit less profit due to cost of living, and always that the consumer should be worse off?

 

I naively perhaps think this about everything that's going on right now.  Supermarkets announcing record profits, exactly why is it they can just not raise the price of rice and instead make slightly less money, given the proportional difference in impact on consumers?

 

 

I agree for large companies. But that doesn't scale to small outfits. BF only have 6 employees.

 

I run a little company. There's only 2 of us. There is no way I can avoid price increases if I want to stay open. Paper has doubled. Energy has doubled.

 

My prices have gone up but my income hasn't.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

There's a fine line between raising prices enough to maintain a profit margin and raising them just enough to stay in business. Small entities like BB are more able to walk that line, not having either shareholders to placate nor a top heavy management to feed. As for profit, here also small entities tend to not have any. If times are good whatever may be left over after covering salaries and costs don't go to shareholder dividends or executive bonuses, they get reinvested into the business.

[Kev]

10 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

 

 

I agree for large companies. But that doesn't scale to small outfits. BF only have 6 employees.

 

I run a little company. There's only 2 of us. There is no way I can avoid price increases if I want to stay open. Paper has doubled. Energy has doubled.

 

My prices have gone up but my income hasn't.

Yup, that's absolutely fair enough.  It's a shame bigger companies have the audicity to maintain or even increase profits during these times.

[chris_b]

Hopefully what Alex does right now will enable him to weather this economic crisis.

[Chienmortbb]

18 hours ago, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

It's all Biden's fault.  😫

 

 

Oh, right, you're in the UK. It's all Johnson's fault. 🙄

It’s not Biden’s fault that the exchange rate usd-gbp has tanked. The means the drivers that Barefaced use are up just by that with general inflation added on top. Johnson Biden Putin Brexit, take you pick.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

1 hour ago, Chienmortbb said:

It’s not Biden’s fault that the exchange rate usd-gbp has tanked.

Google 'sarcasm'. In France it's Macron's fault, in Germany it's Scholz's fault, in Australia it's Albanese's fault. They don't blame Putin in Russia, on penalty of death or being conscripted (the same thing, actually), but the reality is that it is his fault everywhere. 😉

[MacDaddy]

7 minutes ago, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

Google 'sarcasm'. In France it's Macron's fault, in Germany it's Scholz's fault, in Australia it's Albanese's fault. They don't blame Putin in Russia, on penalty of death or being conscripted (the same thing, actually), but the reality is that it is his fault everywhere. 😉

 

It's society's fault, and I blame the parents!

[Daz39]

5 minutes ago, MacDaddy said:

 

It's society's fault, and I blame the parents!

As usual, No one is thinking of the children!!

[jazzyvee]

8 hours ago, fretmeister said:

I needed to order a load of paper for work - just A4 printer / copier paper.

I usually just buy the cheapest 80g stuff I can find, and yesterday even that had doubled in price!

 

Astonishing increase. I'm slightly insulated as it's a business expense to set off and I can get the vat back but even so that's just mental.

 

How long do printer cartridges last for? I'm thinking about stocking up before those go even more silly than they are already.

I got fed up with the cost of inkjet printer cartridges since the number of prints you get from them before the solvent in them evaporates is really low. I bit the bullet and got a colour laser printer and the current cartridges were bought pre-covid and still going strong.  I get refillable cartridges also which saves a few quid.

[Downunderwonder]

5 hours ago, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

in Australia it's Albanese's fault.

I think even the Aussies have to give the new guy a month before it's his fault.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

2 hours ago, Downunderwonder said:

I think even the Aussies have to give the new guy a month before it's his fault.

Not on Sky News. 🙄

[Quilly]

On 08/06/2022 at 10:54, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

It's all Biden's fault.  😫

 

 

Oh, right, you're in the UK. It's all Johnson's fault. 🙄

Still though , I don't think the UK government are exactly making life easy for British manufacturers what with all their shenanigans

[T-Bay]

On 09/06/2022 at 15:11, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

Google 'sarcasm'. In France it's Macron's fault, in Germany it's Scholz's fault, in Australia it's Albanese's fault. They don't blame Putin in Russia, on penalty of death or being conscripted (the same thing, actually), but the reality is that it is his fault everywhere. 😉

American thinks everything wrong in the world is down to Russia, who would have thought we would live to hear such a thing………

[shug]

On 09/06/2022 at 12:03, Kev said:

The bigger companies are worse, for sure!  But in the Barefaced example, have they risen prices to make the same profit as pre-covid/cost of living crisis, or are they taking less profit?

I suspect Barefaced margins have been steadily decreasing month on month since the last time they set their prices. I can't think of any commodity which hasn't risen in price over the last couple of years and particularly the last few months. Every single increase erodes a companies profits, whether it's timber or diesel or adhesive or teabags, it all comes off the bottom line. 

 

With a high-end and somewhat niche product like this it's surely better to preserve quality standards at the expense of pricing than the other way round?

 

I hope Alex and his team can weather this and continue pushing out their unique product.

 

Of course, I might be less sanguine about this had I not got my BT3 in March...

 

Edited June 20, 2022 by shug

[FDC484950]

On 09/06/2022 at 13:00, Kev said:

Yup, that's absolutely fair enough.  It's a shame bigger companies have the audicity to maintain or even increase profits during these times.

One word: shareholders.

[unpluggedjack]

Just been in the situation of which cab to buy. Went with Barefaced and very glad I did. Even with the price rise, still 'cheap' compared to Bergantino if you can actually find a new Berg in UK. There's a little bit of Vanderkley kicking about and no chance of Mesa for several months.

 

I waited 16 weeks for My Barefaced and throughout, kept looking for alternatives. There were none! Everything is out of stock and long lead times.

[BigJHW]

personally i'm still running an older BF Super 12T

But if/when the time comes for it to be replaced (no signs of that yet thankfully) for sure i'll be going to Alex and BF for a new cab.

they're not cheap - but the sound you get from them is better than anything i've played over the years.

Here's hoping they're still going as/when my cab kicks the bucket and even if i have to sell off the 1st born or a kidney or two i'll pay what they're asking for a new cab.

Shame things are so tough for everyone at the mo.

 

[jazzyvee]

I've had my BTII for just over 4 years and if anything happened to it, sure i would buy the most up to date version of that cab. I did a lot of reading about cabs when I went looking for a new one and mainly due to the good reviews of owners here, video reviews and a few conversations with Alex I realised this would be the best cab for me and so far I haven't played through anything else that makes me think otherwise. 🤑

[Quilly]

I was in a position where I was looking for a small but relatively powerful rig for jazz / acoustic sessions. I had bought a TE elf there a few months ago and was really happy with it. In my head I had a One10 to partner this with as I know how good these cabs can sound as I have a Two10...but I just couldn't justify the cost of one, especially for just occasional use.  £450 for the amp and another £50 for a cover for it. Another £50 if you wanted the silver cloth.  I'm in Ireland so we're talking €650 potentially (or thereabouts). in the end I just ordered the 1*10 TE cab from Thomann for €295 delivered and all. I know the one10 is probably going to be a “superior” cab but c'mon.... 

Edited July 11, 2022 by Quilly