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The WER supplement to the Glass Times magazine has provided information on the costs involved to join the Authorised Retailers scheme. They are as follows:
- There is a one off registration fee of £200
- To licence a single product (per annum): £199
- To licence multiple products (per annum): £399
They do also point out however that between the 1st September and 28th February 2010, there will be an introductory offer of £75 for the one off registration fee. Though I doubt that will swing many undecided firms.
To me the costs are ridiculous. This is just another quick way to try and squeeze yet more money out of retailers, already struggling through the recession. I doubt the uptake on this scheme will be massive. Until installers see this as being a genuinely useful tool, and not another money making plan, few will join.
>You'll also be spending over a grand to have a third party (independant agency) audit from someone like BM Trada. And the BRFC stickers for your windows (the only tangible marketing aid) are quite pricey at £170 per 1000. As a man in the know said, this scheme is a restriction of trade, tieing the AR to a single firm through the agreements that have to be made. Is this something the DGB is going to be pursuing?
>Is this something you are interested in doing? The stickers for your windows will be £170 per 1000! Some frame suppliers are trying to contest the scheme as it is a restriction of trade.
>I don't know if we'll be joining the AR scheme, it's not up to me! We may do, but we will be looking into seriously reducing those costs. A big bug-bare is that you have to pay the fees per year. And at £400 for more than one product to be licenced, it's not cheap! The financial costs far outweigh the benefits, and in retrospect, a sticker is a sticker, no matter whose name it has on it, all that matters to the customer is that it is energy rated and going to keep their heating bills down. £170 for… Read more »
>I think you'll find that switched on installers, and fabricators will go for this. It's actually very cheap if you want a serious marketing advantage over your competitors.
This is by far the best marketing tool our industry has had for years, and arguing about the cost of stickers seems pretty silly to me. You can make this back in one house full of windows.
PS. I'm not pulling your leg on this one. You must have noticed WYW pushing A Rated by now.
>In the grand scheme of things £170 is not a lot of money, but it's the principle, £170 for stickers is rediculous. Plus the rest of the costs of the AR scheme are OTT.
Yes I have seen your videos on YouTube.