Has any other Australian forum members had a look at the February Naim price increases?
According to Naim the increase should be 5%. Why is it a lot more here?
For example the 555dr PS has gone from $13250 to $15800, that’s a 20% increase!
The 300dr has gone from $16000 to $18300, that’s 15%.
I have contacted the distributor here (Busisoft) to ask for an explanation.
Would be good if some others joined me.
I am assuming the current very unfavorable exchange rate ? But still, it’s an extreme price increase that will make anyone think long and hard about any upgrades I guess.
Don’t forget the “Australia Tax” just amplifies everything. It doesn’t fully explain 20% but my understanding is that Australia gets totally ripped off by crazy tariffs.
It’s the cost of doing ANY business in Australia it’s $$$$$$$ to do anything here.
So many layers of Government , Local, State & Federal & all the Tax and compliance costs associated with that. The rates of pay is right up there, shop and warehouse rent is expensive as hell , etc etc etc it all adds up.
Yes, salaries are high comparatively to the UK.
Below is the reply I just got from Busisoft.
I’m no import/export guru but why would the price be based on the US dollar when it’s manufactured in the Uk?
What a load of bull, I hope Naim UK are aware how we are getting ripped off down here.
“Unfortunately, there are also exchange rate factors that have come into play - we purchase and sell based on the USD Pricing of Naim - not the UK pricing, I am afraid.
The original pricing was set in 2018.
The new exchange rate in which we purchase is MORE than 10% worse, plus the price increase wasn’t necessarily a flat 5%, it was varied and in some cases higher than 5%.
It was around 0.73-0.76 cents at the time of which these were set, now it is at 0.656 as of today, which is a 10-13% decrease.
All of the prices we have set are exactly in line with the USD pricing, plus duty and GST.
Unfortunately, our currency is getting hammered against the USD and it doesn’t look like this will be improving any time soon.
We took over distribution in July 2019 and tried to keep the pricing the same at that time, unfortunately we could not hold out any longer with the price increase on Naim’s side also.
Thanks again for your query.“
It’s typical new distributor, exchange rate etc etc. Unfortunately it is what it is, tax has in my opinion very little to do with it as there are no new taxes and any increase (tax wise) would just be pro rata.
I’d factor in some gouging as well. A ND555 with ps will set you back over $41ks. That’s big money and hard to justify. Also remember when you compare with US pricing the tax is probably added on top of the quoted price.
It gets worse. Dealers are so few and far between in Australia, that not only do consumers have the crazy prices but much of what is bought is on a punt. Buying second hand and frequent trial and error box swapping is a fact of life for my mates there. That or going for brands from the general region like Plinius.
I think that Pete the Painter is right. There is a new distributor who is taking the opportunity for a reset and it’s true the USD/AUD has moved against us. I used to import Grundig, and my pricing was in USD. I was also a Naim retailer back in the day and I am pretty sure the importer wrote their futures in USD even then.
To be fair, the previous distributor (NA Distributors), were pretty good on pricing in comparison to some other distributors of UK product, (as are the Linn distributors), so maybe Busisoft figure they can load a bit more to the prices.
Yes agreed!-- I have heard from Naim owners in Australia are about to be stomped on by the new “agent” they said the previous fellow -Chris Murphy was genuine and fair–this new mob is as useless as Tits on a Bull.
Naim HQ must have rocks their head to appoint this Busisoft outfit.
Ah well Naim will suffer in sales and service
Good night nurse-
D41
Yes I agree. Chris and his team were excellent, I also think Naim made a huge mistake changing horses. Chris cared about the product and you. Now we have a distributor that has too many eggs in the basket and really is only concerned with turn over. There use to be regular ads in the local hi fi mag, now there’s very little.
As for US prices you can also add - depending on location - state and local sales taxes. For me that’s about 10%, so a 300DR with a US retail of about $15k (pre price increase) is really $16.5k.
Is that fed and state taxes (10%)
Its a shame Naim UK turn a blind eye to this sort of gouging. For a brand that takes customer loyalty so seriously you would think they wouldn’t be happy about their distributor ripping off the customer base.
In the end it will effect sales, I was planning on upgrading my XPS to a 555 this year, but now I wont be.
I agreee Chris was excellent, if this is what the future holds, its not looking good for us.
US has no federal sales tax. It’s all state, and local (county + municipality).
I think Chris still has Naim in NZ, it’d interesting to see what kind of price increase they’re had. @Mike_S can you help, any info?
But the feds would get something somewhere I’d imagine. Here there’s really just 15% GST which is just a sales tax.
It’s moot for the US. The distributor is owned by Vervent Audio Group, owners of Focal-Naim.
Same, I don’t think I’ll be upgrading anything. Think Naim need a distributor that could focus on the brand as it’s not that well know here. I don’t know anyone else (apart from a friend that I introduced them to) who have even heard of them.
You need passion for a brand like Naim and I think that’s now missing.
All hope is lost 