Which chandlers?

S

shem@ksw

New Member
Joined
7 Nov 2011
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8
www.liferingrocket.co.uk
Hi Guys, Im new on here, Im a kitesurfer and have messed about with little old rowing boats with sails, but now have use of a drascombe lugger for the coming season, so am thinking Ill be posting a fair bit, during my trials on the water!

Which are the biggest chandlers in the UK, any national ones? Im basically launching a sailing product and am looking for places to get it stocked.

Thanks in advance!:)
 
Shem,

It'll be a toughie, the buyers/purchasers at all the major chandleries get approached about 10-15 times a day on average with a new product or supplier trying to sell a new product, plus obviously they are dealing with products supplied through their established networks and so an independant approach is often ignored or just put as a note on an email to "get around to" and unless you're prepared to travel a lot, invest a lot of time trying to meet buyers, it'll usually stay as just a note. Not meaning to dissuade you, but just give you a realistic view of what will happen once you start approaching people - (pretty much what most people get told in Dragon's Den as well! :p)

I would suggest that Initially, call all the chandleries with a national mail order side, obtain the name and email address of the buyer relevant to your product and check if they're ok for you to send the details of your product. (apologise if this is telling you how to suck eggs, just you're a new poster here and I have no idea of your experience in this field, no offence intended!) - Send them an email introducing yourself and your product and follow up within a week or so with a friendly phone call.

To give you an idea of some of the more popular names known to most on these forums:

Force4
Mailspeed Marine
Piplers of Poole
Marine Megastore
Marinestore
Jimmy Greens

I'm sure other people will have a long list of the ones they know...

..Incidentally, what's the concept of the product? Just being nosy! ;)
 
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Hi, Thanks for that, much appreciated. Im a product designer by trade, so Yip I know any new product is tough to Launch. I know I could have sold it to a couple of big boys and taken a %, but I thought Id give this one a go myself :)

Ive also got a few BIg names interested in using it them selves, so hoping that will help sales. But like you said, Ill be doing a lot of travelling to get the ball rolling. Much thanks on the names, very much appreciated

Nice one!
 
Shem@ksw,

Why give chandlers a cut of your profit.

Sell mail order and advertise in the yachty magazines and ebay.

If the product is a good one and needed by people it should sell itself.

If it proves popular the chandleries will contact you.
 
theoldsalt said:
Shem@ksw,

Why give chandlers a cut of your profit.

Sell mail order and advertise in the yachty magazines and ebay.

If the product is a good one and needed by people it should sell itself.

If it proves popular the chandleries will contact you.
Click to expand...

Seen the cost of advertising....its loads.

What is the product anyway?
 
Hi, well Im all set up for selling myself via a website, but yip, advertising costs n all that. Better to have 1% of something than 0% of everything, I've always thought.

Edited by Admin
 
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Shem,

You should have a p/m. If not, can you p/m me?

(Your posts seem to be delayed as well, I'm guessing as a new poster, there's a qualifying period before it goes on, hopefully that'll stop soon! :p)
 
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shem@ksw said:
Hi, well Im all set up for selling myself via a website, but yip, advertising costs n all that. Better to have 1% of something than 0% of everything, I've always thought.

Edited by Admin
Click to expand...

Looks interesting - a development of the 'slime' bags used by kayakers in the 80's.

My main concern is what happens if (when) the thrower is untrained, unpractised and throwing from an unstable platform (boat) and they mis-throw so as to hit the water just in front of them or a long way off the casualty. The thing will inflate and, presumably, be unthrowable again. I.e. you have only one chance to throw it to the casualty...
 
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Im pretty sure that know one does any thing similar, maybe you mean the jon buoy? The key to this is its accuracy and its distance. A lot of companies claim a throwing distance of 30 meters, but when tested they come very short of the mark. I think my post got removed because they are classed as commercial posts.

Regarding a second shot, the main principle of any life ring, isnt to throw it to the casualty, its to throw it behind them and then pull it into their path. Secondly it can be manual activated by the casualty in the water, if its set up that way. Personal choice you could say. As I mentioned before my 9 year old son threw it 19 meters on his first attempt. Thanks for the feedback
 
prv said:
Don't Ocean Safety (think it's them) already have more or less exactly this product?
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Shem asked which Ocean Safety product I meant - I didn't know exactly when I posted, but after looking around their site I guess I mean this one. This other one is similar but without the rope.

The only difference is that Shem's one has a bit of a handle to it which might help it be thrown further, but not sure how much difference it really makes. It would certainly make it more awkward to stow.

Pete
 
I have one similar to the Jonbouy, without the self inflation. I have practised throwing it and I can't get it to go far. Shem's design looks like a toy my son had a few years ago which was designed for throwing. Even at sailing speeds it is surprising how quickly a MOB gets separated from the boat. I think the extra distance gained by Shem's design could be a lifesaver.
Allan
 
shem. as an ex-adman, if you do decide to market it yourself, why not try to get it in the new products of PBO.

my first inclination would be to make a short video of your product in action, demosntrate how it works and why its better. post it on youtube and send a dvd copy with your press release to PBO so they can see it's not b**llsh*t and hope they feature the product and the youtube address as well as where to buy it. as a genuine sailing publication, if it's a genuine product that really does improve safety then PBO will surtely look at it favourably.

in my day a video was a major investment but these days a PC and a mobile phone seem to be all you need.
 
Also look at facebook advertising. It's very targeted indeed and very cheap if you do it right. If you go through the motions of creating an ad then stop you will probably get a voucher within a month for £30 ad credit - that's what happened to me anyway :)
Cheers
Dave
 
Burnham Bob said:
my first inclination would be to make a short video of your product in action
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Already done it, hasn't he!

The website linked in the quote in Sea_Spray's post has a video showing what it's all about. Could do with some attention to the English in the captions though - would be a pity to be ignored by a promoter over a greengrocer's apostrophe (and I bet some would).

Personally I'm still not convinced it has enough benefit over the existing products, but I wish him well.

(Incidentally, the reason he hasn't posted back (and is PMing me instead) is that he believes he's been blocked by the moderators - not sure whether that's accurate or just a misunderstanding due to his post in this thread being edited. I think this is an interesting topic, not spam, and there's several precedents of people having this kind of discussion about new products. Could someone ask Natalie to unblock him if that's what's happened?)

Pete
 
prv said:
Already done it, hasn't he!

The website linked in the quote in Sea_Spray's post has a video showing what it's all about. Could do with some attention to the English in the captions though - would be a pity to be ignored by a promoter over a greengrocer's apostrophe (and I bet some would).

Personally I'm still not convinced it has enough benefit over the existing products, but I wish him well.

(Incidentally, the reason he hasn't posted back (and is PMing me instead) is that he believes he's been blocked by the moderators - not sure whether that's accurate or just a misunderstanding due to his post in this thread being edited. I think this is an interesting topic, not spam, and there's several precedents of people having this kind of discussion about new products. Could someone ask Natalie to unblock him if that's what's happened?)

Pete
Click to expand...

+1 on most of what Pete said there, interesting product, I feel it has something over the jonbuoy in the tool used to deploy it, I can certainly think of an application where it would be preferred over the current offering. Liked the videos, impressive.

Shem also P/M'd me thinking he was blocked - Not sure that's the case rather than a new poster delay, but the thread was very quickly becoming a bit of an advert for his product, and could see where that conflicted with the rules.

I also would recommend contacting the press as Burnham Bob mentioned, see if they would be interested in putting it through a test - be prepared for the possibility that it might end up getting some constructive criticism though in that case! If a magazine test creates a positive hum, retailers are more likely to go looking for the product to distribute.
 
Thankfully innovation and progression will always ensure that products continually develop. Lets face it, if they didnt wed all be riding Penny farthings still! :-) Im fully aware I use existing technology, but its the way that its delivered that changes the overall outcome.
 
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