Don't forget the lease/mortgage on the building and insurance for building and liability. Electric bill.....
Workhorse Pits- notification
- Thread starter 16Adams
- Start date
Don't forget the lease/mortgage on the building and insurance for building and liability. Electric bill.....
SmoothBoarBBQ
is Blowin Smoke!
Valid point but those are fixed costs, and I was talking mostly about the specific variable cost of the steel. Mind you my point was to show a general calculation about the labor costs versus materials costs.
But yeah...with those steel prices I can't imagine they're making much money at all right now. As has been brought up in this thread experienced welders and fabricators demand high wages. Then, as you stated, all the fixed costs along with the amount of equipment required to run that kind of shop must be incredibly high.
I'll give them some serious respect for continuing to "fight the good fight" at their original price point, though I'm not sure how long they can sustain that price point.
Dustin Dorsey
Full Fledged Farker
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2014
- Location
- Burkburn...
I think at some point they did bump up the prices a little bit. They do seem a lot cheaper than a lot of other builders that I looked at when I was in the market especially vs. Mill Scale, Franklin, and Moberg. I don't know how they do that.
pjtexas1
somebody shut me the fark up.
I've had a couple builders tell me it's the labor that costs. The difference in pit size not as much. They still have the same amount of cuts and welds. Not sure if this is relevant to the cost of steel.
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Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk
jkief
is one Smokin' Farker
I don’t know if it will be sustainable in the long run. Profit can be made 2 ways (same as car dealerships) volume or profit per pit margin. If they take less profit from each pit, but move more volume (wait list) they can make just as much money perhaps. I believe this is a business model Shirley uses because the price for their pits are amazing and their wait time is ridiculously long. It will be interesting to see if this is sustainable or there is a tipping point where they have to raise prices.
JAKs Q & brew
is one Smokin' Farker
Like others no inside info or experience in the steel market, but I also have to velieve they think the price will come down in the next 12-18 months. If they believed that this was going to be the new permanent price for their raw materials they would raise prices accordingly, but if it is only temporary, you take a hit to margin to build positive reputation
jojocircus
Is lookin for wood to cook with.
uuuuh did anyone notice the mention of "El Bandido Grills" ????
I would certainly like to know more.:clap2:
I would certainly like to know more.:clap2:
Jmgunn
Knows what a fatty is.
It’s a Santa Maria style that they’re releasing (or maybe just showing?) on May 4th.
cdhbrad
Full Fledged Farker
Standardization of Manufacturing processes may have something to do with the pricing. Here is a recently released YouTube video from Workhorse that talks about the construction process and timeline. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8s18nqjE5E
Using CNC plasma cutters, while a large capital investment, likely helps maximize utilization of that very expensive Steel plate and pipe.
Using CNC plasma cutters, while a large capital investment, likely helps maximize utilization of that very expensive Steel plate and pipe.
Qkooker
Knows what a fatty is.
- Joined
- Sep 15, 2016
- Location
- Victoria...
Kuddos to the pitmaker. Taking less profit to maintain a great product while the price on everything has gone up. I may have to get me one.
NickTheGreat
is One Chatty Farker
- Joined
- May 8, 2012
- Location
- Iowa
This what I came here to say. They probably had high margins to begin with and are calling this a marketing expense. :biggrin1:
rque
Knows what a fatty is.
This, unlike a lot of the other builders WH definitely are not “all handmade”. You can see a lot of the mechanization and automation… it’s not “sexy” but it gets the job done and reduces the labor costs… maybe that’s how they’re doing it, combined with reduced margins to buy market share… with telling people you’re gonna have to wait, maybe they’re also foregoing expanding capacity to keep costs down as well. IDK, glad I got my dream pit last year!!!
cdhbrad
Full Fledged Farker
Not “all handmade….” I’ll let you share that thought with Tyler Shirley……..pretty sure he has or will have a CNC Plasma Table in the new shop. Personally, I would opt for parts cut by a CNC and hand finished than everything cut by “hand”. I do some woodworking and know I can cut a much straighter line on my high end tablesaw than I can with my best Japanese handsaws.
One of my other hobbies is shooting custom 1911s. My favorite and likely most accurate was built by Brandan Bunker, Bunker Arms, who is a good friend of mine and does almost everything in a custom 1911 build with one of the 4 Haas CNCs in his shop. His pieces go for $8K or so and he has a long wait list. I’ve never heard anyone berate a Bunker Arms Custom because it’s not “all handmade.”
PS: You own a Workhorse and I seriously doubt it is “all handmade” either because I’m pretty sure Workhorse has had those CNCs from inception, not just since that video was made earlier this month.
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rque
Knows what a fatty is.
I did not intend to make anyone think my WH was “all handmade” and I did not call out Shirley specifically either. I actually don’t know diddly squat about Shirley, except that they also seem to make great pits. I too am 99% confident several CNC cutters had their hand in fabricating my pit and there’s nothing wrong with that, keeps costs reasonable. I will say that in researching pits to buy the pit making industry in general -not targeting specific brands- there seems to be marketing focused on handcrafting of pits. You don’t see a lot of waxing poetic about how great the cuts are from a CNC but you do see a lot of bragging about hand laid welds-WH included in that this time.
