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Part vehicle wrap pricing. What would you charge?
Hi All,
I like to think that I’m 90% of the time a mid range priced business, if a customer has had previous quotes (on artwork they’ve sketched themselves) we will often ask when we’re doing the work what the prices were, we’ll find we’re usually mid range but they like the service and the little touches etc..
So, got asked to tender for a reasonably large company in december, about 18 vehicles and loads of plant, they’re rebranding.. the tender was based on one vehicle price – a mwb 17 plate sprinter. To be honest I knew it was a free for all, I didn’t much like the fact that ‘semi wrap’ was specified, the fact it appeared that they were looking for stuff to be done at their site (dirty), I also had an inkling that due to the specs they were hawking, and I decided not to get into a bidding war.
Yesterday I got a call personally from them and they said that I’d been highly recommended by the original owner (now run by a management team) and could I please tender. I rushed a quick quote through – based upon their drawing supplied and using proper wrap film, not semi-wrap, I explained my differences, reasons for choices of materials, and that I would probably alter the layout as well as preferring anything that was possible to be done here, was.
I get a call this morning to say thanks, but I’m well over the prices quoted, by some £600, I am genuinely shocked :yikes: !!!!!
Here’s the materials required..
10m digital wrap, (Arlon DXP or SLX in my case) – small bits of print could fill that empty spaces on this)
8m 610 10yr hexis suptac (as the vehicles will no dout be jetwashed within an inch..)
full prismatic chapter 8 rear kit,
prismatic 55mm yellow side stripe.I estimated 6hrs labour to do the job, though with door handles to be removed etc. I suspect possibly longer on my own?
Based on the above materials etc., could any of you spare 5mins you give me an idea of what you would be charging for something like this? I rarely check my prices against others but this has shocked me. Personally I suspect it’s done as a lost leader to get a foot in the door but I may be wrong. I’ll post my price later so as not to influence any that are kind enough to be given.
Thanks in advance.
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16 Replies
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ps, I”ve blocked out the name but there’s two horizontal and one vertical line of text in that area.
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My first thought is why call you back if you were genuinly so far out?
That says to me they wanted to give you a chance to cut your quoted price which implies you were close to other quotes.
John
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Hi Hugh,
We would be about £950 ish based on a very quick calculation.
Gil
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I recon around £900+vat also.
the finish would be better and speeds application granted, but i wouldn’t remove the handles.
very seldom will i remove handles etc on commercial graphics. -
We’d be around the £900+VAT mark too.
Chapter 8 kit has to be around £100 alone?
Perhaps the cheaper quote they have, is what the company guessed it would cost?
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quote John Thomson:My first thought is why call you back if you were genuinly so far out?
That says to me they wanted to give you a chance to cut your quoted price which implies you were close to other quotes.
John
John, my mistake, it was an email this am, thanking me for the quote but..
Ok, I’m well over both of those prices, could you indicate what you’re charging for wrap film?
I retail laminated 3yr mono at £45per linear mtr, 5/7yr grey back air release £60-65, and wrap at £70-80.. am I really so far out?
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quote David Hammond:We’d be around the £900+VAT mark too.
Chapter 8 kit has to be around £100 alone?
Perhaps the cheaper quote they have, is what the company guessed it would cost?
The chaptr 8 kit with engineering grade is £130 (ish) + vat and delivery. they specified microprismatic so I guesstimated nearer £200 + vat.
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I retail laminated 3yr mono at £45per linear mtr, 5/7yr grey back air release £60-65, and wrap at £70-80.. am I really so far out?
Is that a fitted price or a supply only Price Hugh? I know you said Retail & not trade but I have bought in & fitted cheaper than those prices on a job of that size, my Labour rate will be much lower than yours though as I am always to cheap :blushing:
As for chapter 8 kits I have found there doesn’t seem to be a big difference between engineering grade & prismatic unless you spec 3m material, last couple of chapter 8 kits I have fitted for mororway use has been using the Oracal crystal which is a prismatic.
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quote Martin Pearson:Is that a fitted price or a supply only Price Hugh? I know you said Retail & not trade but I have bought in & fitted cheaper than those prices on a job of that size, my Labour rate will be much lower than yours though as I am always to cheap :blushing:
As for chapter 8 kits I have found there doesn’t seem to be a big difference between engineering grade & prismatic unless you spec 3m material, last couple of chapter 8 kits I have fitted for mororway use has been using the Oracal crystal which is a prismatic.
We have some customers who fit their own so I’ve always had a material price (which includes production / weeding etc. in house) and then add my hourly rate when fitting. Has always worked pretty well for me like that tbh. I generally reduce the material costs by 10-20% for regulars or on large quantities, and also have a much lower price when I’m supplying the few local signmakers I do sub print for.
our wrap film costs around £18 per linear mtr to keep on the shelf, then there’s the machine running costs, time taken laminating, business overheads etc. and the various disasters that can happen to take into account..
re chevron kits, it depends largely on how the kit is supplied, many just sent out a box full of numbered bits like a jigsaw, what you think will take an hour to apply can take an hour just to arrange it!
I’m not overly disappointed at losing this particular job as I know it’ll be headaches down the line, just never thought I’d be so far out!!
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with regards to the chevron kit alone. you need to remember that "some" companies will create these in-house.
i say "some" because i recon about 2/10 companies will make chapter 8 kits in house. others, like you, buying in.personally, i would make the kit in-house. so my markup on the rear alone would be much higher than someone buying it in.
if you look at the van again and look at one side.
its easily £300 alone.
the rear is easy £300 alone
3 sides, £900+vatall this said, i agree with you, it "should" be more expensive due to the materials, labour etc. but "our industry" is full of inexperienced companies, freelance installers or cowboys that are willing to do work like this for next to nothing and using the wrong materials at the same time. There are such a high number of companies like this in our industry, it is them that is setting the so called "acceptable price" for this type of work and others like it.
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Hugh I only asked to get a better idea of how you had priced it, realise that your not to worried about loosing the job & it is more about the price you quoted compared to other quotes BUT you don’t really know how far out you were in reality unless they have told you the price that everyone else quoted.
For example how many Companies were £600 less than your quote, it may have been just one or two & they could easily be the type of Company Robert has already mentioned that work for next to nothing & don’t use the correct materials.
No idea if £18 a linear metre is good or bad not owning a printer myself. how does that price compare to a good cast vinyl as that job could easily be done with a cast, mind you might add a bit extra for fitting time if working on your own as it won’t be quite as easy to fit 😆 😆
I always had a very good idea of what other local Companies were charging for different types of job which I found helped me a lot with quotes. Made it much easier for me to position myself roughly where I wanted to be amongst the local Companies. Like you I tried to keep myself somewhere towards the Middle.
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quote Robert Lambie:with regards to the chevron kit alone. you need to remember that “some” companies will create these in-house.
i say “some” because i recon about 2/10 companies will make chapter 8 kits in house. others, like you, buying in.personally, i would make the kit in-house. so my markup on the rear alone would be much higher than someone buying it in.
if you look at the van again and look at one side.
its easily £300 alone.
the rear is easy £300 alone
3 sides, £900+vatto be fair, they said that the prices they’d received were nearer £900 +vat, I went in around the £1500 mark.
re the chevron kit, I used to make my own and while the mark up is much better, there can be a lot of time involved making one from scratch. that combined with the fact they asked for prismatic (which my plotter won’t cut), I opted for a kit. The downside to the kits is that bluelite, chevron shop etc all sell to the public at the same price they sell to us, Smiths don’t I know but I’ve always found the pricing off putting from many of them… virtually no room for mark ups.
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I’d have bought the chevron kit in, rather than spending time making one. I’d be happy making a lower margin on that, making my money on the bits produced in house, and the installation.
I’m not a fan of pricing ‘per van’, we’ve done it in the past, but we quoted on each batch of vans as we were travelling to dealerships to install, so split the travel costs between the number of vans.
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Chevron kit manufacturing, correct, can be tedious and drawn out process. i agree, but once you have your own library of files it can be quick and profitable. It also gives you an edge over competition. There is also a method that can be used to create without a template or flatbed cutter etc.
due to me taking a couple of weeks holiday over Christmas i have fallen behind a bit on things happening on UKSB for 2018, but you will start to see a new series of demos and videos appear over the next few weeks. a couple of them is based around chevrons, creating them etc etc so you will have a much better idea of what i am talking about then.
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I’m curious Rob on how you’d make a Chapter 8 Kit yourself?
We don’t have a flat bed cutter, with ultrasonic sealing. Having launched a website solely targeting vehicle graphics, we’ve had a few enquiries (and sales) for chevrons.
We’ve been buying in from Chapter 8 Highways, who we can’t fault, but there’s not much margin in the job. We don’t make much on the kit, but charge a decent rate for installing.
Was going to visit sign UK and see if there were other suppliers there, but only 1 attending, and having seen their website prices they’re more expensive than what we’re currently paying.
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UKSB is having batches of NEW demos being loaded very soon David. This type of thing is included.
I have been back and forth on business and been really busy the past few weeks, or these would have already been loaded.We also had an issue with Signapp for android after Google changed some stipulations in their T&C’s which effected tens of thousands of apps, so we have just resolved that too and the new update of the app will be available on Google Play in the next day or so. Very odd one for Google as it is normally Apple that keep moving the goalposts. Anyway, resolved now, so this lets me get back onto UKSB updates.
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