Stuart:

The issue you raise is not new to us - it is one that we have struggled with almost since the inception of Concept2. We are up against several immutable factors:

1. The product is made in the US largely by hand, primarily here in Vermont.
2. In the US we sell our products direct to the consumer. We have very few retail sales, very low overhead (for instance I work from a door placed on two file cabinets), a close proximity to some of the major rowing venues (near to Boston and the Head of the Charles for instance) and a very small marketing budget. This means that our margin requirements are fairly small.
3. As a company we are not equipped to create a directly owned subsidiary to run our business in all the countries that have a demand for our product
4. We feel it important to provide not only a way to purchase a rowing machine or oars from us overseas, but perhaps more importantly, we feel it imperative that there be a way to get service, training, repair, race support etc. for our machines where ever they are sold.

The combination of these factors lead us to have independent distributors in all the major markets (of which, of course, the UK is). These distributors purchase Concept2 products from us in Vermont, they then cover the cost of shipping by sea (rowing machines are heavy, and compared to products like cars and consumer goods, small volume), all warranty and repair issues, race support, advertising, office support, etc. All of this costs money - which has to be covered by the difference between what they pay us for goods, and the price you as a consumer pay. In the case of the UK, our distributor there has done a tremendous job of servicing the rowing community - from the large races like the BIRC (British Indoor Rowing Championship) to the small.
They have also done some good work with Red Nose Day, which I believe was
recently the largest sport related Red Nose event in history.

The Concept2 rowing machine has a great reputation for quality - in large part due to the effort we put in to making it, but I would venture to say that it is also due to the quality of our distributors -who as a group do an excellent job of supporting Concept2 products. There may well be cheaper rowing machines available in the UK, but the popularity of ours points to the value many other factors beyond price.

Regards,

Bill Patton
Concept2

Bill makes some good points, and you can make up your own mind about the issues. For me a doubling in price still smacks of excess profits. The thing that strikes me is that Concept 2 are selling machines for $830 in the US, and ALSO providing all the support, competitions, standards control, office support etc that Bill mentions in his reply, to consumers in the United States. The distributor in the UK must pay less for them than $830 (because that is the retail price). I actually got a quote to ship a Concept 2 from the states to the UK (a secondhand model because Concept 2 won't ship abroad - presumably because of all the support reasons they state above), and from memory I think it was about $100. So if the UK distributor are shipping in bulk, that must be cheaper per machine. Even if the distributor pays $830 + $100 shipping. Do the costs of a distribution network and support etc plus profit explain the $737 disparity in price?

For me the Concept 2 is a great machine no doubt, but the price differential does still rankle.

In any case you have now heard both sides of the arguement, and you can decide for yourselves.