HUSKIES AT SQUARE LEG . . and Kawasaki's tough call by Chris Biddle
OPENING week of the cricket season, usually the time for any early Spring sunshine to disappear immediately the first ball is bowled. As the season opened on Wednesday I wouldn’t have been suprised to see Ranulph Fiennes opening the bowling, and a hot Bovril drinks break every half hour ferried to the middle by huskies on a sledge.
But, after the coldest March and April that most of us can remember, for once the cricketers seem to be heralding the start of ‘proper’ weather.
Mind you any optimism we might have had was pretty well dashed by the effusive weatherman Piers Corbyn at the AEA conference this week who claimed that we are actually in the throes of a cyclical ‘ice-age’ that should lift by 2035! Not a great fan of the Met Office, he said, “They’ve just spent a fortune on new computer systems, so now they can issue the wrong information - quicker.”
KAWASAKI’S decision to drop their hand-held products range has genuinely saddened many dealers. They liked selling the products and the customers liked buying them. Yes it’s a crowded market, particularly at the budget end, but this was a premium product range that has done well for many dealers, and is being dropped whilst still a market success.
You sense from Jack Ford’s explanation in this issue that Kawasaki’s people, particularly in Europe, would have found this a tough call. Still, in the current economic climate, the bigger picture means that such decisons have to be hard-nosed and practical - and with so much competition around, the company obviously felt that the ‘powered by Kawasaki’ message needed to be cemented without other distractions.
However, they are playing the long-game with a phased withdrawal - and with generous warranty terms in place for recently sold machines, Kawasaki's exit from the products sector should be relatively painless for dealers
NOT sure if it’ll catch on, but visitors to a specialist health food retailer in Brisbane will now pay £3 for browsing, which will be knocked off any purchases. The owner said, “We get loads of people coming in, asking for advice then buying elsewhere. We are not charity, but I can usually spot these ratbags who come in to pick my brains and then disappear.”
