Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2013/05/25
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Nathan, It has taken you a very long time to realize and accept this. I was sure of the strategic shift in marketing with the M8 itself - it was so obvious - the marketing, the choice of magazines for advertisements, the positioning, the advertorials, etc. With Blackstone's entrance, it was doubly obvious, especially when the ostensible reason for the investment was to spread the Leica Boutiques, not develop new products. IMHO, it is great for them, because as in all MOJO businesses, the margins are obscene, and as Joseph points out, there are enough people in the emerging world to pay for the bulk of the production (not only the M series but the S series as well). It is not dissimilar to what the Bordeaux market has gone through in the last few years, and what the Burgundy market is going through now - though I believe that over 50% of the bottles sold in China are fakes, because as in all such markets, the labels matter (Mojo), not the intrinsic quality. It will be interesting to see what will happen to Leica as growth in China keeps slowing down, as is bound to happen. Remember, this will shaft the Russian market as well, because energy prices would nosedive. As far as I can see, they have alienated most of their traditional clientele, bar a few, and I wonder where they would go to make up the volumes. They just do not have a diversified enough customer base to withstand a big topline hit. It is going to be interesting. The best thing for all of us would be if all those unused Leicas in China come on the used market at the same time, as herd behaviour takes hold, and cause a glut there. I would look to a Leica IPO for Blackstone and Kaufmann to cash out sooner rather than later, if growth in China keeps drifting down. Cheers Jayanand On Sat, May 25, 2013 at 6:13 PM, Nathan Wajsman <photo at frozenlight.eu>wrote: > Right. So Leica has made a strategic shift from the photography business > to the jewelry business. Fair enough, the Blackstone people obviously know > where the money is. But then they should be up front about it so that the > photography dealers can switch their focus to companies that actually are > interested in supplying photographers. > > Cheers, > Nathan > > Nathan Wajsman > Alicante, Spain > http://www.frozenlight.eu > http://www.greatpix.eu > PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws > Blog: http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/ > > YNWA > > > > > > > > > > On May 25, 2013, at 2:28 PM, Joseph Yao wrote: > > > Leica have been shipping sufficient quantities of the new M240. They may > > not have been sending them to their 'traditional' markets where their > profit > > margins are lower. You will see plenty of M240 in, for example, Beijing > and > > Shanghai, where the going rate for one is US$12,000 to US$13,000. > > > > A handful of limited production silver chrome MM have been made for the > > Chinese market, and available at RMB 1,581,000 each, approx. US$258,280. > > > > Joseph > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >