Paint Prices

[garycarrot]

OK then.

Just to keep it simple.
The paint is "made" in the U.S. for lets say £10 per box of 2000
They sell it there for £20 per box
They sell it to a local distrubutor here for £30
They sell it to us at £40 per box

That about right?

Now i know that as a field operator you can buy at cost, say direct from dist. at £30 more if buying in large amounts. So a local team is not going to qualify for bulk discount.
But how about a group of teams buying in bulk from one distrubutor, would that work?

And as for the price being different based on shipping, thats like justifying the high prices for DVD's and CD's here in the U.K. I DONT BELIVE IT..

 

[Fat Bob's Paintball]

There are one or two very mis informed people on this thread. Steve Bull is very correct in what he said. Forget what teams make up in percentage etc look at the paintball business itself.

When you go to a site and play a walk on, the site does not have to do much for you to play ie you have your own equipment etc. So you get to play cheaper.

For a first timer, there is much more to do. Equipment purchase and maintenance, food, site rent or commercial mortgage, free paint (initial 100 for example), advertising, marshals and the big one, INSURANCE.

How many people out there I wonder are aware that insurance for a paintball centre can cost £10,000 - £20,000 per year.

Thats £200-£400 a week just for insurance. Work out how many boxes that is at £10 per box profit. Then add on the marshals bill, £400 - £1000 a week. Anyone getting the message yet!

If sites are letting you do walk on days, then thank your lucky stars and respect the site by not mentioning to first timers what you are getting paint for, clear up after you and be polite.

I hope this goes a little way to giving you some indication of the costs involved in running a paintball centre.

thanks

Andy

 

[MrDan]

i play for an am team in the uk who currently dont have a paint sponsor-hint hint (or maybe not after this) but i know the paint situation in a few other teams (no names)

What garycarrot said about 'free' paint is true; if a paint producer/sponsor 'gives' a team 2 or 4 boxes per month and if that team ONLY goes to 1 tournament that month and uses 6 or 8 boxes, then that team has to buy the remainder of its paint from its 'sponsor'
...Then if we are to believe Bozza when he says 'sponsoring european pball teams is not commercially viable,' which i believe is a fair comment, then the paint producers/distributors can and are making a profit, otherwise why bother?
A lot of people have said they are making a loss to gain market share, but if they are making a loss selling paint to tourney players they must hate the back players on my team!

Also, if shipping costs are adding to the cost of paint in Europe doesnt that mean that if a paint manufacturer set up a factory in europe they would be able to undercut the competition, or keep the same price but make more profit?

 

[Coran]

MrDan - I doubt the volume of paint sale across Europe is high enough to warrent the cost of setting up a factory over here. These things are not cheap!!!!

Andy (Fat Bob's) - Hear, hear!!! In addition, paintball sites are businesses and the idea of a business is to make some kind of profit. Having said that, many sites only make enough to keep going. Those paintball fields are not paved with gold ya know...

 

[garycarrot]

Just got to answer a few points to Andy. at Fat Bobs.

Andy.
First i do not want to start a argument.
As a "walk on" i would expect to pay a game fee.
Also there would be no maintence for my marker.
And the site gets more than £10 profit from a box of paint from the "punters".
Yes people should not go around telling "punters" how much they got their paint for.
Seems like everything else in the world of paintball, everyone has their own opinion. right or wrong.

I am not a site operator.
Seems to me you need money to..
1 buy marker/goggles/overalls
2 land. rented or owned
3 insurance
4 running costs. marshels/food
5 paint/air/co2

anything else?

you make money by people "playing" paintball.
lets say an average "punter" spends £40
you get 100 a week = 400 a month= £16,000
Half it.... thats still £8,000 a month
Yes i know that you dont get the same number of people all year round.
Once you have got the gear, soon pay it off. Then you are only paying for upkeep. so you must make a profit at some point!
As a tourny player, i pay a "game fee" and then my paint and air.
My team, doesnt play against "punters" we turn up and practice seperatly, with other walk ons.
Whats the point spending £1000+ on my own kit, and then playing against people who havnt?
Playing "punter" paintball is fun. Playing "tourny" paintball is a SPORT.

Yes we must all respect the site operators, and try and encourage more "punters" to come back, and spend more money.
I use the word "punter" not in a bad sense.

 

[Coran]

garycarrot - You forgot to mention any full time employees of a site. They REALLY hammer any monies made!!

 

[bozza]

MR Dan

I never said that the distributors where not making a profit but they are not making anything like as much as the manufacturers.

Lets say for arguments sake the manufacturers are making 200% which is probably fair the distributors in some cases are making less than a tenth of that.

As for why teams get sponsorship at all in europe, some of that sponsorship comes direct from the manufacturer so the distributor does not have to pay which is the only reason why it happens. These days the millennium series cases even more problems because the main distributor has to make sure that there is paint at every event for all the teams. This cost in most cases is bourne by the distributor so teams are costing these distributors money, its not the teams fault as each of the distributors probably has a contract which says they have to do it.

I stand by my comment NO european team is worth sponsoring from a commercial point of view as they have no worth. Except in the cases of a lot of Diablo teams where there is 1 or more site operators within the team but even then its still not really making them any money just not costing them so much.

Boz

 

[garycarrot]

Just get....

Why dont you get some non english speaking refugees, our local council can arrange this. Pay them nothing and charge them for staying on your site!!!! Just a cost saving idea?

 

[samwoolner]

@ fat bobs walk on you pay £40 for 2000

 

[acsik]

Setting up paint factory in europe IS a viable business.

I dont know about you guys but I've been in MAX'S wholesale warehause and I had quite a lot of business with them. They move MASS amounts of paint and there is Sports Attitude in France and the english wholesalers. You would be suprised how many balls they sell a week.

As far as I know there were a factory in Milan (It) ran by Scherer and there were talks about a Diablo factory in the UK.


AAnd the added benefit would be that we would have actualy FRESH paint wich is sometimes really hard to get.


Peace