>

Recently, many of us have been talking about the prices we sell our products at and how they should be at least about 20% more than what they are now. Well, as I see it, prices won’t be able to go up much due to pressure from the consumer. As the country prepares itself to go into even tougher times, the pressure to get anything at rock bottom prices will be even greater, with customer playing companies off one another to get cheaper prices. This tactic will make raising prices even more difficult. Most companies will still continue to take increases on the chin, despite that eating into their already dwindling profit margin.

The problem here is that the consumer still thinks that this is a ‘buyers market’, when in fact it is a market creaking under the pressure of rapidly rising prices, and a market that desperately needs to raise their selling prices to survive.

The window industry is a short minded one. Three quarters of all companies will still result to under-cutting in order to win the business, even if this does mean making little to no profit in the job. That sort of practise has only one end result, and that’s bankruptcy. The smart company would increase their prices slightly, yes they might lose the odd order, but the increased margins on the others they do win will off-set that, and help secure their financial security short-term.