Energy efficiency is coming to the home.
For years, the knock on CFLs was the price and the form. When CFLs were not price competitive with incandescents, many said the product category wouldn't take off. But all this is changing.
Over the past couple of months, Home Depot and Lowe's have been offering CFLs at attractive prices. Yes higher than incandescents, but a 4 pack of CFLs that are comparable to 60W lamps is about $6 and 65W indoor floods are about $7. With rising electricity costs and the increased focus on "green" and energy efficiency, CFLs are selling better than ever. And WalMart will start selling CFLs at 3000 of its stores starting today. With retailers entering the market in a big way, CFLs are no longer a fad, they will start to become mainstream.
Yes people need to become comfortable with a whiter light, but people will adapt...
Plus, there are efforts in Congress to phase out incandescent lamps over the next 5-10 years.
And the kicker is...most of the CFLs are manufactured by "contract" manufacturers...either private labeled for the big 3 lamp companies or private labeled for retailers (i.e. HD's brand is N-Vision).
Do you have a source to compete? Are your customers starting to ask for CFLs? Aside from the big 3 as sources, what are your options to compete (obviously the HD's of the world have a price and margin advantage by going direct vs. "a middle manufacturer).
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Will Distributors Lose the CFL Market?
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4 comments:
Sam's Club is now offering their label of CFL's and two asiles away is GE's
We are selling "Going Green" retrofit.....but the problem is training for some of our contractors.
CFL pricing to us is all over the chart...right now.
Harry M
As the consumer gets more educated about CFL's, price will not become an issue. It is known that the cheaper the CFL (in most cases), the more Mercury it contains. There is only a handful of companies which have Mercury content as low as 1mg (ie. Turolight, Litetronics). And higher priced CFL's, usualy are even more efficient and provide better color rendering. Besides, we need to look at the reverse, a consumer can save $50 in energy, so even if they only save $49 because a better grade bulb is costing $1 extra, they are still saving money but the consumer will be happier with the light quality and the green factor.
We've been using the Turolight product and its by far superior to any other product we've used. The less mercury the better if you ask me. Their bulbs are smaller, brighter and start instantly. I'm not sure why anyone has to sacrifice safety and quality of light for effeciency. The bulbs we purchased from Torbram Electric are perfect.
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