# Swissvax - the bigger picture...



## hotwaxxx (Jul 12, 2007)

Well it seems Swissvax are heading the way of Zymbol and will be selling their products via themselves and no third party retailers such as CYC and others.

So is this the first step in Swissvax becoming the new Zymbol?


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## daveb (Aug 9, 2006)

Zymöl havent (to my knowledge) stoped reselers selling there products.
Dave


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## BretFraz (May 16, 2007)

Seems like Swisswhacks wants to tie products and services together. That gives them a bigger revenue stream to tap into. Now that resellers have helped establish the name, they're being cut loose in favor of detailers and shops who will (likely) use Swisswhacks products exclusively. 

All inquiries made directly to Swisswhacks get routed to the authorized detailer who will sell both products and services, and Swisswhacks gets their cut from both.


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## Exclusive Car Care (Jan 14, 2007)

BretFraz said:


> Seems like Swisswhacks wants to tie products and services together. That gives them a bigger revenue stream to tap into. Now that resellers have helped establish the name, they're being cut loose in favor of detailers and shops who will (likely) use Swisswhacks products exclusively.
> 
> All inquiries made directly to Swisswhacks get routed to the authorized detailer who will sell both products and services, and Swisswhacks gets their cut from both.


is this the case in the States too??


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## Bigpikle (May 21, 2007)

I just dont believe companies that take actions like these..... First Z in their own way, and now them :wall:

I was just beginning to develop a commitment to the brand, having bought a few of the products and being on the verge of grabbing some BoS, but will now kick them firmly into touch, as I have seen others begin to as well.

With innovative new brands entering the market like Dodo etc, there are plenty of alternatives for me to try, and still spend my cash with quality resellers like Tim at CYC, and others on here, who give me first rate service and value time and time again. 

Having spoken face to face with the SV people at the NEC recently, I know exactly where I will be going for knowledgeable advice on detailing products :lol:


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## Boyd (Aug 4, 2007)

Swizzle is sold here in that way.... You never see them, and you never hear something about them. It's a real pity for you guys that you loose such good sellingpoints


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## BretFraz (May 16, 2007)

Gleamingkleen said:


> is this the case in the States too??


Not to my knowledge. Swisswhacks does not have much market penetration here. I think there are only a few (3 or 4) distributors/resellers of Swisshwacks in the US, Pakshak being one of their newest.

Zymall is much better known being a US company. Their heyday was more in the 80s and 90s with the concours crowd at places like Pebble Beach. Consumers got to know the brand a little better when they sold a cleaner wax product in retail stores, a partnership with Turtle Wax (really just a TW product in a Zymall bottle).


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## Exclusive Car Care (Jan 14, 2007)

BretFraz said:


> Not to my knowledge. Swisswhacks does not have much market penetration here. I think there are only a few (3 or 4) distributors/resellers of Swisshwacks in the US, Pakshak being one of their newest.
> 
> Zymall is much better known being a US company. Their heyday was more in the 80s and 90s with the concours crowd at places like Pebble Beach. Consumers got to know the brand a little better when they sold a cleaner wax product in retail stores, a partnership with Turtle Wax (really just a TW product in a Zymall bottle).


INTERESTING!!!!!JUST ASKED AS I HEARD THAT THIS DROPING OF RESELLERS WAS HAPPENING THROUGHOUT EVERY COUNTRY SELLING SWISSVAX AND NOT JUST SWISSVAX GB HMMMM MUST OF BEEN MISLEAD


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## BretFraz (May 16, 2007)

Just to add to my post above, not much has changed with Swisswhack's US distribution in the past four years. In 2003 I received a price list, product brochure and other info from Swissol USA. I don't recall who the US dealers were then, but there are only four now. While Swissol may be an established mfr in Europe, they have little awareness in the US.


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## ianFRST (Sep 19, 2006)

its a shame that SV have decided to do this, i thought they would have kept as is, as im sure they have had more custom from the zym0l bashing recently. but alas, looks like they will be in the swear filter again, lol


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## spitfire (Feb 10, 2007)

Dodo! STOP LAUGHING! You'll hurt yourself. :lol:


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## Paul-T (Nov 2, 2006)

Why should/will Swissvax end up in he swear filter?

Just to put things in perspective, the reason Zmol went that way was because they were actually threatening litigation just for the use of their name and if I remember correctly it pretty much started when ***** got the hump because a Swissvax authorised detailer had a link to a ***** authorised detailer, then the ball started rolling on that one.

So far, absolutely nothing of the sort has happened with Swissvax. They have made a commercial decision (rightly or wrongly, I'm not making a judgement on that) to sell direct instead of through re-sellers.


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## RaceGlazer (Jan 10, 2007)

I understood that SW only had distributors in the UK market, so news to me there are some in other countries. 
What they may well end up missing out on is the likes of Tim ( and myself, SW distributor since 2003) spreading the word, taking teh time to help out and advise both on-line, on the phone and at events. With teh kind of investment these products demand, as they are not cheap, people need reassurance and a call centre/ordering line simply won't do.
There will also be other companies who genuinely value every customer making bids for their market space, and with ***** having an established network of distributors who can help and advise, they will probably be one of the main beneficiaries. DoDo may well make good products, but I can't see them being suited to the premium / non-fashion end of the market.


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## The Apprentice (Nov 22, 2007)

RaceGlazer said:


> I understood that SW only had distributors in the UK market, so news to me there are some in other countries.
> What they may well end up missing out on is the likes of Tim ( and myself, SW distributor since 2003) spreading the word, taking teh time to help out and advise both on-line, on the phone and at events. With teh kind of investment these products demand, as they are not cheap, people need reassurance and a call centre/ordering line simply won't do.
> There will also be other companies who genuinely value every customer making bids for their market space, and with ***** having an established network of distributors who can help and advise, they will probably be one of the main beneficiaries. DoDo may well make good products, but I can't see them being suited to the premium / non-fashion end of the market.


As a newbie (previously mainly stuck to Autoglym as a now ex-friend worked for them briefly and they are a local company to me) I had only ever heard of Zmould and Autoglym from ads in car mags and more recently Megs have gone down that route, I had never heard of Swisswax. DoDo I heard of through a BMW forum user doing a test on it :thumbsup: and certainly would struggle to get a large share of the Halfrauds level user without some serious promo, so demo by forum users seems to be the way to go!

Anyway this site and those experts that post on here counts for more good PR than any small company could possibly pay for and I would certainly be more disposed to buy from the retailers here that really do support us no matter how many times they've had to answer the question!I think that a faceless Swisswax direct would put alot of newbies off simply because it's website does have a cold don't bother us feel.

Anyway I'll stop rambling and just say I think people feel that DW is a community (I feel at home already!) and if you **** off one of the major players on here DW community take it personally and want to support the underdog.


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## Bence (Dec 21, 2006)

Huge opportunity to Victoria Wax

or Dodo Juice


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## cvs04 (Jan 2, 2007)

Can I just confirm that the changes Swissvax are making to retailers and detailers just apply to the UK and has nothing to do with the international market. The hair brain scheme that is being implemented has nothing to do with SV international and has been dreamt up by those at SVUK/Gmund cars. Switz does support their ideas (as Gary RR found out at the NEC) although I very much doubt they have read the forum that was set up by Gary for the detailers or this forum which represents 80-90% of their custom in this country as if they had I doubt Knaresborough (UKHQ) would still hold the UK distribution licence.


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## paddy328 (Mar 4, 2007)

Swissvax hq do know about and have approved swissvax uk decision to bring the selling of products in house.


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## Paul-T (Nov 2, 2006)

RaceGlazer said:


> What they may well end up missing out on is the likes of Tim ( and myself, SW distributor since 2003) spreading the word, taking teh time to help out and advise both on-line, on the phone and at events. With teh kind of investment these products demand, as they are not cheap, people need reassurance and a call centre/ordering line simply won't do.
> There will also be other companies who genuinely value every customer making bids for their market space, and with ***** having an established network of distributors who can help and advise, they will probably be one of the main beneficiaries. DoDo may well make good products, but I can't see them being suited to the premium / non-fashion end of the market.


Just to pick you up on that Mark, thats the whole reason SV feel they have been pushed down this route. People that ARE supposed to have been giving support and correct advice to customer haven't been, leading to disappointment amoungst purchasers thanks to a lack of info a the relevant time. Hence my comment in another thread, the few spoil it for many. So it may well be that despite your best efforts (and Tim's), someone else is to blame andSV have felt the need to react and protect their product in the marketplace. As for call centre, one of the 3 or 4 people who work at SV head office answering the calls is hardly a call centre, and support and advice is also open to customers ringing the SV detailers.

I really feel bad for those that have worked hard and got caught in the flack for this, it sucks. If you're in that catagory then I can understand you being hacked off, same goes for Tim.


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## SDP (Oct 17, 2006)

Reg Hollis said:


> Just to pick you up on that Mark, thats the whole reason SV feel they have been pushed down this route. People that ARE supposed to have been giving support and correct advice to customer haven't been, leading to disappointment amoungst purchasers thanks to a lack of info a the relevant time. Hence my comment in another thread, the few spoil it for many. So it may well be that despite your best efforts (and Tim's), someone else is to blame andSV have felt the need to react and protect their product in the marketplace. As for call centre, one of the 3 or 4 people who work at SV head office answering the calls is hardly a call centre, and support and advice is also open to customers ringing the SV detailers.
> 
> I really feel bad for those that have worked hard and got caught in the flack for this, it sucks. If you're in that catagory then I can understand you being hacked off, same goes for Tim.


I hear what you are saying Paul but............

My problem with the SV UK rationale was that 'they had problems with detailers doing sub-standard work' and resellers selling badly. So they put in place a process that in effect tarred everyone with the same brush (auth' detailers needed re-assessing and resellers got dumped) and which co-incedently made them more money at the same time! Hmmmmmmmmmm! Makes you wonder a bit!

Why not just de-auth the offending detailer(s) and ditto the reseller(s) - surely that would be the normal way a business would operate?

Bit of a short-term view as away from the forum communities SV has very low levels of brand recognition and I would've thought that SV UK would have appreciated the efforts of those detailers/resellers who were getting it right to help grow the brand awareness from its current base.


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## Paul-T (Nov 2, 2006)

Totally fair point Nick, that certainly would have been another sensible choice of actions, and I do see that point of view. I'm speaking as I understand the consequences of what happened, although I haven't been party to the thought processes as to how it got there.


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## RaceGlazer (Jan 10, 2007)

It does seem a shotgun approach and one which perhaps hadn't been fully considered, and certainly one that was far more draconian than i was expecting - most of the reseller community know who the offenders are. There are also factors behind the decision which i am privvy to but, despite teh fact that I'm disappointed that the SW chapter of my business is well and truley closed, and I'm looking forward to correctly servicing the Z**** buyers out there, I am not going to rubbish the company, its people or products publicly.
Those of us committed to building a reputation in this (DW) and outside markets know that you have to do things properly, and if it means someone ends up not buying a tub of wax because, after due explanation, decides the cost of pre-wax preparation makes it too pricey, the correct thing is to let the customer go away fully informed, even if empty handed.
I'm sure this will rumble on, and I have a few plans to make the most of what I see as a poorly planned and executed decision, but am not losing any sleep over it.


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## VXRHERO (Dec 13, 2007)

Earlier on the yr i obtain some bargain price Z***l items, the guy switched to Swissvax, he must be hurting on this news. I wonder if he will change back!


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## cvs04 (Jan 2, 2007)

I think you've mis-read my post Paddy.


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## paddy328 (Mar 4, 2007)

your right i did. Ignore my previous statement then.


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## Alex L (Oct 25, 2005)

VXRHERO said:


> Earlier on the yr i obtain some bargain price Z***l items, the guy switched to Swissvax, he must be hurting on this news. I wonder if he will change back!


If your on about 360 iirc they used to be Z UK until Parc Ferme took over, so probably even more annoyed.


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## RaceGlazer (Jan 10, 2007)

Just to be precise here, Parc Ferme didn't 'take over' as such - they exist as a separate company to Z**** Europe Ltd, a separate entity - valeters and resellers of prdocut like anyone else, though sharing Directors. Z Europe are simply the product distributors for Europe. After all, if you sat in the US and wanted someone to run European distribution for you, an obvoius choice would be people you know and who know your products.


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## Epoch (Jul 30, 2006)

I agree Mark, but i may have been a fairer idea to have sourced a company who didn't have direct advantage in total market control.

A bit like Sony giving sole distibution to a separate company with the same directors as Curry's for example. Would make it hard for Sony Centres, Comet, argos etc


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## Dodo Factory (Apr 11, 2007)

RaceGlazer said:


> After all, if you sat in the US and wanted someone to run European distribution for you, an obvoius choice would be people you know and who know your products.


Just to clarify, despite Three60 being a company started around that time, Three60 was ZDOuk before and distributed Zyml in the UK for years and knew Zyml and knew their products. This distribution was removed from them and given to the new Parc Ferme associated company. I imagine Z's decision was based on the fact that Parc Ferme were a detailing company and ZDOuk were retail/distribution, although I'm sure they could have got into it if required etc.


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## Epoch (Jul 30, 2006)

SCW before ZDOuk (Sports car world Ltd) for those of us there when they first started distributing Z in the UK

Fan me , nah just obsessive eh Dom


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## detailersdomain (Sep 13, 2006)

Swissvax NA will not be following Swissvax UK on charging detailers a fee or taking them away from etailers. 

I'm 100% sure Swissvax HQ (Switzerland) knows about the UK's decision. 

I have no idea why Swissvax UK is doing this its just not good business sense.


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## RaceGlazer (Jan 10, 2007)

Epoch - I can't see what you mean about 'total market control' - Parc Ferme are a successful valeting company, but as a Z reseller they are not top of the heap. But the Directors do know about putting products on cars from deep personal experience. 
I just can't understand what peoples problem is with the current arrangements, and never have - even when I was selling Swissvax. As a Z Reseller myself, we're all treated the same and PF are just another reseller.


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