Bridgestone or Michellin

[panhead]

I’m in Forg’s corner on this issue as I’ve been told the same about tyres as what he has been trying to get across.

Having worked in manufacturing for many companies in Australian, USA, Korea, China and Japan all of them make different grades of same components and product and sell them in markets to suit.

They also sell to other manufactures and the grade they use determines the quality and price point of their assembled product.

As far as I’ve heard, producing different grades of the same tyre has been around for years.

Producing different grades of anything has been a part of manufacturing since manufacturing has existed but don’t confuse it with quality control issues as that is an entirely different animal.

The different grades are produced on purpose as it makes good sales sense on a global marketing platform.





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[Forg]

I guess you refuse to believe what I have written in relation to the tyres Tempe import....

Correct.

 

[vc commodore]

I’m in Forg’s corner on this issue as I’ve been told the same about tyres as what he has been trying to get across.

Having worked in manufacturing for many companies in Australian, USA, Korea, China and Japan all of them make different grades of same components and product and sell them in markets to suit.

They also sell to other manufactures and the grade they use determines the quality and price point of their assembled product.

As far as I’ve heard, producing different grades of the same tyre has been around for years.

Producing different grades of anything has been a part of manufacturing since manufacturing has existed but don’t confuse it with quality control issues as that is an entirely different animal.

The different grades are produced on purpose as it makes good sales sense on a global marketing platform.





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The different grades are generally for the country which they are aimed at or they have a different model for the brand, so confusion isn't made when shipping to a particular country they are aimed at and the on sell to the consumer....

Where the confusion seems to be within this topic is, the same brand and model tyre imported by Tempe to this country varies to what the brand specific supplier gets....

Yeah I know people think I'm full of crap with this topic and so be it.....It seems those have heard the information from outside the actual tyre industry and if they wish to believe that, that's their choice.....I can only put down what I know from being directly involved in the industry

 

[Skylarking]

Doesn’t matter what the industry is, everyone within an industry hates their competitors use of parallel or gray imports as they can often get these at a cheaper price than through official channels. Then the rationalisations as to why they are bad begin... some may be true, many are not...

Me, I’d rather deal with products from a large national chain with national importer/supplier backup on the products sold... unless the parallel or gray import is hugely cheaper and not vastly inferior.

 

[mpower]

Grey imports are always a gamble, they are of unknown quality and often will be a complete nightmare to get any kind of warranty.

If you like to live like this to save a few bucks - have at it, just don't pretend that you are getting "the same thing but cheaper".

 

[Subju]

a

 

[vc commodore]

Don't get me wrong, I have no doubt that Tempe could be doing dodgy stuff to keep their prices down but realistically, I would put the prices down to sheer numbers of sales and having that extra buying power allowing them to out compete by differentiating on price.

Not sure on their retail side, as they don't have a retail outlet in S.A, but buying power in the whole sale side hasn't got anything to do with their cheaper pricing.

Example...I know a couple of brands that have a factory distribution warehouse in this state and Tempe are under cutting the factory warehouse prices....So you can't say that buying power would have anything to do with their pricing structure in this instance.

Retail wise...Yes common practice for businesses...Buy in bulk, pass on savings to consumer

 

[mpower]

VC is on the right track, I know this might be a bitter pill but the reality is, there is no way Michelin would let Tempe get away with grey importing of their tyres especially given how many tyres they sell. Especially on something like tyres, the risk in a car accident and the investigators then identify the tyre as a knockoff being the reason for someones death. The result would be an unwinnable legal case. Massive risk, little reward.

Australian businesses are isolated from the rest of the world and don't have to compete hard, those barriers are falling down exponentially and existing Australian business owners will do anything to protect their margins and differentiate their product.

It's easy to disparage someone like Tempe with, they are grey imports to help keep your customers because they can't compete on price.

Don't get me wrong, I have no doubt that Tempe could be doing dodgy stuff to keep their prices down but realistically, I would put the prices down to sheer numbers of sales and having that extra buying power allowing them to out compete by differentiating on price.

no one said they are knockoff tyres, dunno where you got that idea from.

the rest of your post is unsubstantiated dribble - stick to facts mate.

 

[Skylarking]

... the reality is, there is no way Michelin would let Tempe get away with grey importing of their tyres especially given how many tyres they sell.

Yes, the national distributor of Michelin tyres may dislikes parallel import with a passion but they can’t do anything about it other than suck it up*1.

As is, there are High court precedence where parallel (grey) importing of a product is indeed considered a legal activity. Seems lawyers being lawyers, their is still some debate whether the courts have got it correct w.r.t. trademark law, you can look here but it‘s a hard read.

*1
In any case, if the national distributor doesn’t like parallel imports, they can always spend millions taking their case up to the high court on questions of trademark law but they’ll likely loose because of the implied consent that exists within international subsidiaries when manufacturing authorised products (from what I gather, it’s implied consent so as to not restrict commerce which is illegal in many places around the world)...

And the federal government believes that such parallel import (of legit, not counterfeit products) helps competition and keeps prices lower, thus it is of benefit to the public (so they’ve taken no action to clarify legislation to the contrary).

 

[Subju]

a