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Yep, which means cheaper labour. You can debate the morality etc till the cows come home but it makes no odds, the fact is that’s why production is in these countries for a great many products as we all want “cheap” apparently, irrespective of the cost or impact on other things.
I have an article on my PC about the rise of China in this industry that I’ve been working on for months. It’s complex and no matter how I go at it I think it’d hack off the Chinese producers, even though it’s not entirely their fault.
But yes, I think many will rue the day that they allowed or outsourced production of a great many things to China as it would seem that many a Western industry cannot compete with them on costs or efficiency in some regards.
Leading to the rise of these supermassive groups like the Whirlpool/Beko thing, Bosch/Whirlpool and I suspect more to come in a bid to try to compete at least on scale and costs. Whether it’ll work or not, who knows.
Meanwhile, consumers appear not to care.
K.
To be fair, that place has been on the cusp of getting shut for donkey’s years.
And labour in China, Turkey etc is way less than anywhere in Europe.
K.
I have been wanting to do the North Coast 500 for a few years and that’s like that, peaceful but getting the time is a nightmare and getting stops with internet even more of a nightmare.
K.
I dug into this a bit, well, so much as I could as there’s not a lot of info on it really and put most of what I could find other than some wild speculation here:
Bosch Look To Aquire Whirlpool
But so far, though broken by Reuters, it’s all based on the usual “people familiar with the matter”, so not a huge amount of substance or info as yet. That said, there has to be something in it and the sources must be solid or Reuters wouldn’t have published.
It could upset a few things though for sure but what I find more concerning is this trend toward supermassive companies that trade under umpteen brands as, in my view, that confuses customers and really shouldn’t be allowed. And I know P&G, Unilever and slews of others do similar but at least they have the decency to openly admit and print on the packets who actually owns the brand.
In this industry (among others) the only way a punter will find that out is if they go and research things and, we all know how many will do that.
K.
That is true but this year seems to have been a bit odd. Though there’s several things in play I suppose, the cost of living thing seems to be having an impact on a lot of things, interest rates, the election, sport, a bunch of things can all play into it and, even if it doesn’t affect some they get it into their heads not to spend money just in case.
We’ve seen it on the parts that people can live without, things like burners and so on that are replaced for cosmetic reasons; a lot of people just aren’t spending that as they don’t **HAVE** to spend it.
One online retailer I know of in the health/beauty type sector where it’s non-essentials reckons that they are taking 10{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} of the orders that they usually would across Europe so for some it’s grim. And they reckon the same, it’s just people reining it in due to all that’s going on.
One of the big ones I hear cited is interest rates as people are paying way more for mortgages, cars, stuff on tick and what they have on cards etc and it’s hurting.
Maybe we’ll all get a bounce after this election if there’s a change and people get a bit of a feel good factor and some optimism back.
K.
The past few months virtually anyone I’ve spoken to has said it’s been quiet, across multiple industries as well and not just ours.
K.
That is interesting, though. I was thinking that Electrolux would be bought or entered into some sort of partnership after the Whirlpool/Beko deal and the Chinese invasion.
K.
I think that the best plan is, for now at least, to start it and see how it goes. We can monitor it and change stuff up, merge threads etc as makes sense as we go.
I am noting some of the potential pitfalls but the consensus seems to be that it’s a good thing on the whole.
Thing is, do we make it public or just trade?
K.
