Playing with currencies

This interactive graph allows you to explore how the Rand fared against the major currencies (Euro, Dollar, Pound) over either the last day, 10 days, 1 month, 1 year or 3 years. Click on your choice of currency and the time period you wish to examine.

The Rand/Euro 3 year graph is particularly concerning, as most of the equipment
that I import is from from Europe. This shows a doubling of the cost of gear imported
from Europe in 3 years! Coupled to this, we have the manufacturers' own
annual price increases, which are compounded.

The combined affect of these two increases has caused the landed cost of
imported gear to increase to approx 260% of the original cost in three
years, i.e. if something cost R10 000 around three years ago, it should now
be around R26 000.

Now think for a moment... what did these imported items cost in SA around three years ago?

But have local retail prices increased by that much? No way!

SA importers and dealers have shrunk their margins to non-sustainable
levels in an attempt to keep this equipment affordable, however this has meant
that some can no longer remain in business. Its a tradeoff between keeping
prices down and staying in business.

Not an easy decision for anyone to make... and not easy to find a price-point level that brings enough business to pay the bills.

If our margins are too small, then no matter how much volume we move, we cannot pay the bills.
If our margins are too high, we lose sales volumes.
That elusive middle ground has now virtually disappeared completely.