would it make a difference if you are a sticker brand or part maker or full maker of bats? anyone in the know got any ideas - as in if you did everything from raw cleft to finished bat and were a big brand - could you buy in bulk and minimise costs enough to get the price down? i.e like Chase - or are they selling them at cost/below cost to get rid of them?
as in if GB willow is a sticker brand - is that why the price is so high?
or am i talking complete crap - please tell me if i am 
GB willow has their own in house batmaker, and are predominantly English Willow suppliers. Their pricing is actually very competitive IMO, just the grading of this one piece seems to be up for debate. £145 for G3 up to £320 for G1 is very good pricing IMO.
Most likely Chase has to buy in a fair bit of willow, so the lower grades/butterflies they'll make up and sell for very little profit most likely. Lots of love for the R1 grade, one of the best value for money English made bats you can buy. It's good for the sport itself, as it means folks with a tighter budget can access a well priced bat without compromising on manufacturing quality.
Thing is, even if you're making from the raw materials, you need to spend a large amount on purchasing a fairly hefty chunk of it for good rates, and then the time investment to making the end product. That's a lot of money to be invested in the materials. You also have a lot to be invested into the actual manufacturing equipment and maintenance as well. It's not an easy industry to get into from the looks of things. For start ups, you'll get a good beginning as you'll have teammates and friends etc to buy from you, but after that, it's very tough I'd imagine.
In terms of sticker brands, it's a bit of a funny one. Some of them start off with 1 manufacturer and then switch for various reasons. (Better product, cheaper product, manufacturer relationship turned sour, etc etc.) In terms of their costs, they'll get the bats from the manufacturer for cheaper than the manufacturer sells their bats for, and then add on their own cut on top of that to make a profit. (Nothing wrong with making profit, we all need to make a living somehow) The costs associated are different, the space they need and also the equipment they require. Thing is, many manufacturers will need to make bats for these sticker brands, as their own brands don't sell enough for them to be busy all year round...
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Topic: G1 butterfly (Read 6263 times)