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Can anyone assist on pricing for wrapping?
Can anyone assist on pricing for wrapping? I am quoting on a LWB Sprinter. One competitor has quoted £1200.00. I’m no pro at wrapping, but this does sound complete b******s to me. After sitting down and working out the costs, I would have thought around the £4500 mark including lab.
cheers
Karl. -
38 Replies
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That sounds very cheap, I would expect it to take upto 2days to completly wrap a van. For that sort of money you might be looking at vinyl cut text and some printed areas.
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Hi Luke,
I presume you are referring to the £1200 price tag. What would you charge?regards
Karl. -
£3k+
but that’s me printing and laminating in-house.
also, fitting it with our own guys in-house.you also have to allow for design time etc if customer hasnt provided artwork.
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Hello Rob,
Is there anywhere on the net that can offer a price guide on charges for most vehicles? I would presume this is a regular question for anyone starting out in this field.Karl.
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hi Karl
i think asking for examples here is about as good a guide as you are going to get. i do not mean that in a bad way… i simply mean that every job is different, no set structure. well in most cases.lets say 1 metre square has to be wrapped on a vehicle.
i think i can fit/wrap pretty quick and ide do it on my own…
i print and lam in house…
i have facilities to fit….so i could call it £125 fitted….
Joe bloggs signs on the other hand.
not quick at fitting… takes a couple of hours and needs second pair of hands to help…
has to buy in the prints laminated… so costing him much more.
has to fit on site, traveling time etc…same job could be £275
next comes your "location". it is common fact on these boards that pricing varies up and down the UK.
e.g.
going rate for a transit with cut vinyl in Glasgow = £220
going rate for a transit with cut vinyl in London = £420also, each and every vehicle has its own obstacles… the standard transit is straight forward enough, so you set a price on it as an example of what your customer will pay for that size of van.
in comes another customer with a smaller van, lots of deep recesses, weird shape roof etc there is much more labour on it than the transit so what do you do? he clearly sees his van is smaller so expects to pay less!
easy to loss a few pounds here and there on extra vinyl, but hours for two men in labour quickly adds up.I’m babbling now, all i am getting at is don’t hold a straight price on a vans size/type because there is so much more to take into consideration when getting into this line of work.
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Hi Rob,
In an earlier post I told you about the guy who would do it for £1200.
Ive just spoken to client and he’s had me in stitches. He told me the materials being used are MacTac 9800. I don’t know if you use mactac on a daily basis but this is 5 year cadcam vinyl. Told him this is not wrap vinyl and will come away after a short time.
It’s hard when you are up against other signmakers who will do the job at a fraction of the cost and then print on to any old crap. -
I used mactac 9800 for years, its a great calendar vinyl but certainly not a wrap material. fair enough if they said mactac macfleet or mactac imagin… but not 9800… ive never tried but i doubt print quality would be great on this material…
the best thing to do with cowboys is distance yourself. "don’t try" and compete… wraps are priced high because getting it 100% is very difficult if you do not know what you are doing. that goes right from the start..
designing the wrap properly…
choosing the right vinyl and laminate for the job…
the printing and laminating process.
preparation of the vehicle…
application and finishing of the wrap…only a month or so down the line will you know if you got the lot 100%.
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I’m no pro at wrapping either Karl.
but 4.5k does seem ott, Ok if you can get it, fine,dont get me wrong. if done by pros, it possibly would be wrapped in a day by two blokes, and time left for a cuppa. so the guys doing it all the time can charge less, that is how the market is, For a one off I think Rob is nearer the mark, but if it was for multiples, I think you would struggle to get £2.5k.
Phil Haling is probably a good source for pricing, but I doubt if he will give to much away 😉Its really down to a mind set, the owners of the vehicle, could get it re-sprayed for a lot less than £4.5k, and that is what they will compare it with, not the WOW! factor or advertising value…..
so perhaps talk the customer into a better quality, partial wrap?
sorry like I said, I’m no wrapper, but you do need to sell your product competitively, and to do that you need to be proficient, and offer quality and proper guarantees.
Just some thoughts.
Peter
Peter
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Hello Peter,
You are correct in what you say. If I’m unsure of a price charge you have to test to see what you can get and also try and gain advice off people in the game like yourself. The good thing is though the client came into the shop about an hour ago and we both agreed on £3800. Half up front and I’m a happy chappy! -
Good for you Karl,
hope it works out well!go for it
Peter
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Are you doing the roof as well?
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No. Client doesn’t require the roof doing. what are you still doing up at this time of night. glad to see I am not the only sad git still at work!
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Karl, how did you agree on £3800 ? Did you give him a higher price, he wanted to pay a lot less and you met somewhere in between ?
What did the customer have to say about the quote for £1200 he had received, obviously your quote was much higher and he is still happy to go with it.
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Good morning Martin,
I have shown him a mactac colour chart, this also states the materials conformability. Also demonstrated the Arlon film i had in stock. Because we can’t fit this film as of yet, i have contracted an outside source to fit until we are ready to fit the film ourselves. I agreed to lower the price after he started to make my heart bleed! -
Of course, a lot depends on whether it is the new shape Sprinter or the old but, even on the old shape, I would be happy to do them all day long for that sort of money.
You did well Karl. 😀
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Thanks John.
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You did very well to get that sort of price, ever tried selling snow to eskimos? Average price lwb sprinter, no roof, would be itro £2500 – 3000,
We just priced a 3/4 wrap – from the doors back, all across the back doors and back up to the front doors – 9 of them, we priced at roughly 1100 ea and were promptly undercut. Rule of thumb – get what you can for spinters because they are without doubt the van that will come back to bite you ( same goes for VW LT35’s, before somebody else points that out) -
Hello Phil,
I think your price, no offence, of £1100.00 is a seriouse undercharge.
As I said before, I am a virgin to this side of the business, and maybe my pricing is a bit rocky. But if you think about the cost ie: vinyl around £400, and then your laminate, around £365, where is the profit after your labour and designing time? I’m not telling you to suck eggs on this mate!
If some p**t down the road is undercutting they must be using crap or just happy to take business from you to hold you back. Sounds to me this other guy is just a busy idiot.
I signed my Kia Sedona a few months ago, not wrapped but plenty of photos, including a picture of me on both sides and back. the shop I rent is in a busy location and stands out like a sore thumb as well. This does make it easy to charge more because everyone can see the quality. Most of the time the jobs sold before it’s quoted. Not trying to sound big headed but we are good at what we do and the people round here know it
and are very willing when it comes to parting with the reddies! -
Hi Karl,
I think the major problem comes from the difference between fleet graphics and one off vehicles. Fleet specifiers are driven by budgets wheras the independent businessman knows what he can afford as a one off expenditure. Also the profitability is decided not only on what you charge for a job, but what you pay for materials – as we all know on here, what you see as the published price is more or less a starting point for pricing negotiations. We could print & laminate a wrap as described above for well under £500, but we use large volumes of material.
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Valid point Phil. I suppose when it’s put into that context no one could argue with you. I would like to know where you get your matts from matey! Sounds like a good deal. Thats where my charge is higher. I don’t as of yet buy large volumes of the wrap matts, so i would obviously pay more.
Karl. :headbang2:
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Phil is right.
I know of an end user who get their Transit SWBs wrapped, but no roof, for £925 each. There are probably forty to fifty a year and they are done by a reputable company with proper materials and there are no complaints.
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I agree that it happens guys, but i would never price as low as £925 to wrap a transit regardless, even if there was 100… its the same amount of work, skill etc
fine you can come down much further than if there was only a few but supply and fit for £925. 😕
i would not wrap a small box truck "no cab" flat grp panels. for under £1500 and i can complete one of them in an hour and a half. -
quote Robert Lambie:i would never price as low as £925 to wrap a transit regardless
Neither would I Robert. That’s why this other firm is doing it. I turned it down. 😀
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quote Robert Lambie:I agree that it happens guys, but i would never price as low as £925 to wrap a transit regardless, even if there was 100… its the same amount of work, skill etc
fine you can come down much further than if there was only a few but supply and fit for £925. 😕
i would not wrap a small box truck “no cab” flat grp panels. for under £1500 and i can complete one of them in an hour and a half.Rob, if you do it in 1.5 hours how do you get £1500 pricentag?
flat panels are simple to fit, unlike a wrap.
I have said it before, and sorry I have to say it again, over pricing is as bad as the cowboys that underpricePeter
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peter, it depends on how you look at under/over pricing.
my price beat "by far" at least 6 other sign firms. a couple by over £1000 per vehicle.
that said, we were more expensive than at least 6 sign firms, but still secured the job. (i am basing this on one job, but we have quoted at least 5 times on work like this, this year alone) won them all… "fleets of trucks i mean"educating the customer in why cheaper quotes come about normally gives them a bit of peace of mind when you tell them the quality of your materials, ink, fitting procedure and guarantees should anything go wrong.
because i fit a van in 1.5 hours and the next guy a full day doesn’t mean i should be paid any less because i am faster. the flip side is the customers truck is back on the road after a couple of hours rather than a whole day. 😀 -
Rob, flat panels or wrap? Hanging wallpaper is relatively simple, and no disrespect, box vans are not hard to do.
If you can get the price, good for you, but don’t be surprised if someone comes up behind you, and does the same job, with the same quality and guarantees, and for a lot less, that’s life. Don’t be complacent, be aware of the competition, (nothing personal, same advice is for all)Peter
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i couldnt agree more peter, but there is much more involved in this than just fitting. as i have said, quality of materials… labour, print setup, laminating, travel, finishing, rent, rates, equipment etc… i know you know all this but we are in business to make as much money as possible. from what i can see we come in at the average price range with our work and that cannot be bad. ide rather that than the low end…
its the old saying, "you can be a busy fool" and all that…
our sign firm has been on the go 23 years… we are well aware of the competition, but still value our product and service. as you may have seen in a previous thread… we just supplied 600 mini excavator decal kits "print and cut" in reflective vinyl… i know 5 firms were quoting on that and we were NOT the cheapest, but still we won it…look at it like this… if you are a buyer for a big firm…
do you go on the guy that’s cheapest with no real guarantee’s or info on his products guarantee’s.? because you will get a few of these…
do you go with the company that gives you the pitfalls of the wrong type of purchase, materials used, poor fitting nightmares, guarantees on their products. samples of their past work and guarantee’s. but the price is not the cheapest!
or do you go with the BIG firm much more expensive, poor attitude, little info on their product but speaks a good game?
as i said, we hope to be the middle guy… if we get the job great, if its to the lower charging guy then "you cant win them all". if its to the more expensive guy then… we would worry we weren’t doing our job right.
not because hes getting more money for his work… but because
"we aren’t" 😀.
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hm.. interesting thread, I must admit we mainly do quarter/half wraps and sometimes these are around £1200-1500, so this is interesting. Full wraps well I don’t recall doing one recently but its interesting to see the prices quoted above as that guide us a bit.
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Rob, I agree with all you say, but speaking as an old tooth, I have seen "old established firms" fall by the wayside, just because they were to complacent, I know your company is thriving, so its not relevant to you.
Service and quality do count, but be aware, if quality and service can be offered at a lower price, then the customer will vote with their feet,
At the end of the day the customer has the choice, I buy my materials as cheap as I can, but for a given standard, Price is king, like for like….Peter
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i do know what you mean peter, maybe it is just me … but i look at getting as much as possible for every single job that i do, without having to put on the D1ck Turpin mask. (yes, we do have a pricing structure 😀 )
the level of customer i wish to attract is the customer that pays for what he wants, not haggles till he’s blue in the face for what he wants.
i do not mean that disrespectfully, for me its just fact… i dont think it matters if business is slow or busy, you must value what you do and keep to it.i do not want this thread to veer off-topic but…
completely different type of signage…
we LOST a BIG printing customer of many years about 15 months ago…
they were getting priced much cheaper on everything! "like for like" (or so they thought)
once the foot was in the door, the signs were priced the same but the product deteriorated. signage, banners, bus graphics, stickers, vehicles the lot… why? well i see it as the sign firm could not keep up with the level of product and commitment at the prices charged.they have since come back to us with various stories about their last supplier. 😀
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quote Robert Lambie:the level of customer i wish to attract is the customer that pays for what he wants, not haggles till he’s blue in the face for what he wants.Exactly!!
We have just had a similar situation, in the last month I have taken over one of our major competitors who have been trading 60 years next year!
One of their existing customers is a major UK house builder, who asked us to quote for 8′ x 4′ 5mm foamex boards printed full colour – oh and by the way, before you start to quote you have got to beat £47 per board – my reply……… thanks but no thanks!!
I can’t believe that there are people out there stupid enough to be supplying for that price.
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your right chris… we wouldn’t sell the foamex at that price mate, never mind printed and mounted. 😕
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quote Chris Dowd:I can’t believe that there are people out there stupid enough to be supplying for that price.
I can. And I think part of the problem may be the "glamour".
Any of us likes to add a major national company to our list of clients. It looks good in the portfolio and gives credibility when we are quoting for other business, as well as providing a steady stream of repeat work. There are lots of folks out there who are prepared to cut their margins to the bone to win this sort of high profile customer and, if it is their only one, sometimes do them for silly money.
Having said that, volume work does bring savings and not just in materials. The major cost in any job is labour, and I expect my lads to do the tenth van in half the time the first one takes them. That can make our pricing look cheap to someone who is used to one-offs, but still leaves us with a decent profit for our efforts.
Taking all that into account I try to steer the same middle course as Rob, not trying to be the cheapest but giving a good reliable service for the people that are prepared to pay a reasonable price for it. Someone once had the signature "continuously striving to improve the quality of our customers" or something like that. I couldn’t agree more.
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It has to be said that in most cases you get what you pay for, only a few weeks ago a new customer called me for a price on some printed 8 x 4 sheets. I then had to weed out of him what he was using the sheets for and where they were to be located, with this info I gave him a price. He then quickly followed with a tone that I was a crook and he had other prices that were light years cheaper than me. I then explained exactly what materials and process that I had priced for based on the info that I had weeded out of him and suggested he go back to the other parties and price like for like.
We have now carried the above work and been paid at the price given also within the time limit he need the work to be completed, I may add that more work has been priced and agreed, this customer is not on my door step by any means.
I can tell you that depending on the supplied artwork I would be happy to wrap 2 sprinters using Arlon DPF 6000 and Arlon 3220 laminate for 3,800 sterling, but I would be even happier to do one at that price.
Russ
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On many occasions, when I have quoted the client has said "Christ, I didn’t realise it would be that much!" Then you tell them what goes into the job they relax a little. They aren’t just buying the sign, they are buying our time and our experience. They are also given my mobile number in case anything goes wrong at anytime. I don’t operate a 9 to 5 business, and I am always contactable. Many also watch the prep process from start to finish. I can guarantee every time they always say "I had no idea just what went into every job." I think part of the problem is they expect at first the job to be ready to take with them there and then. when they realise this does not happen and the effort that goes into the job, they are more prepared to go with us.
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Sometimes it goes the other way too.
I was recently approached by a volunteer association for some decals for their members. Nothing amazing, just a load of vehicle and window decals.
I gave them a good price, lower then I would have for a commercial user but still making a nice profit for us(selling at about £25 m2). Still based on using 7-10 year vinyl.
They said we were the cheapest quote they had received (we really were not that cheap or at least I didn’t think so)For a colour match they sent me a sample of their existing stock. Bearing in mind it was from a more expensive supplier, it was made from three year mono!
I was very pleased to inform them that our vinyl would have a far better expected lifespan 😀
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Delivery times are something we struggle with somtimes when we are busy which is most days. We also get customers that come in and slag of other local firms for taking there time. I get on well with the other firms around here, and most of the time you find the customer that slags of the competition is a very poor payer, therefore the competition cant be bothered with them.
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They did over delivery times(a number of months for simple cut vinyl) and we were cheapest out of the quotes from new suppliers.
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