We sat with the representatives of a respected contract packaging company last week who had discovered our website and were interested enough to visit our factory, see our production facilities and have a machine demo.
During conversation they made an interesting remark.
“What worries us about Line Equipment is why your machines are sold so cheap?”
We confess that this is not the first time we have heard this and we recognise that there is an image perception problem in the marketplace that we produce cheap machines.
This is our standpoint.
We have been manufacturing our range of all stainless steel VFFS machines for over 30 years. From the outset we worked to a cost-plus pricing model.
We monitored the cost of labour and material for manufacturing the machine and the majority of the parts in-house and marked-up by what we believed to be a decent profit margin that we felt would comfortably cover our overheads and enable us to build a long term business on.
The alternative was to look at the competitors pricing, for example, at that time, a Sandiacre, and just say we’ll price at 10K below that.
We opted for a “Fair Price Policy”and have stuck to it ever since, and, in the ensuing 31 years, we have produced over 400 machines working across the world. The first machine we ever built is still operational!
Since then we have developed a PMMA award winning zip applicator that retro fits to most makes of VFFS machines, a Continuous Motion VFFS machine (and yes, it is 50% less expensive then some competitors).
We have also recently developed a machine that allows you to fill Pillow, Quad and Doy style bags from the same machine. The PDQ.
It is not cheap. It is fairly priced and less expensive than similar multi bag type machines on the market.
The build is of the highest quality, stainless steel and full servo with Omron controls.
We do not have a PDQ demonstration machine. We build them and they are shipped out. We have one in production at the moment. If you want to see it we believe it will be available between completion and shipping at the beginning of July. Get in touch to arrange a visit.
Line Equipment machinery; UK Designed, UK Built and Working Worldwide.