MEP Films closing the doors Sydney and Brisbane

[Glass Tinting Supplies]

I received a letter tonight saying that MEP Films are handing back the warehouse keys to their Sydney and Brisbane warehouses. They have said it is to pave the way for a Melbourne super warehouse, but I would imagine that market share has dropped, and the majority of the film that they supply would be to the M1 owned franchises, so there would be little point having a warehouse that tinters can walk into and order film.

I feel for anyone who is out of a job from this, but I have such bad memories from my early years as a window tinter at the Sydney warehouse. There was 1 guy there... (I won't say names) that we used to call the tint n@zi. We had to wait for our film in an orderly fasion.. Or it was... NO TINT FOR YOU! It is motivation for me to make people feel like they are doing the supplier a favour, and not the other way around. It wasn't until I popped my head into Johnson Window Films that I was shocked to meet someone that not only wanted my business, but wanted to help me.

An old supplier leaves Sydney in October... And a new supplier is born in Sydney in October...

[jj]

They should have handed the Sydney keys over to you GTS in lieu of the new empire you are building!!

I agree about the empathy for anyone loosing their job, but also feel that the need for a size reduction is indicative of the ever decreasing hold MEP has on this industry.

[Glass Tinting Supplies]

I think it is more of a case of too many hands in the pie for MEP. You have executives at M1 and World Mark that won't take a pay cut. But If this means that they can compete on price, then maybe it is a good move for them. I feel it a shame that such a good product as Llumar is in the hands of MEP in Australia.

[jj]

Yep that's about the size of it...

[Devil with bad attitude]

There is no doubt at all that until the advent of Suntek and their introduction into the Australian market, the existing film wholesalers had good rosey times.

But ST rocked the boat big time with fantastic aggressive pricing for once never seen in Oz and the big players got caught napping.

For the first time ST was able to wholesale film at costs from yesteryear whilst all the others were going for the continual big hit.

Now we see the results of the seeds sown by ST and MEP taking what looks like a very substantial loss of market share.

Rumours have been around for years that Bek, MEP and Johns have been impacted the most in the supply market.

Devil

[TCM5]

MEP Brisbane closed yesterday. There was good and helpful people there, I'm sad to see they are out of jobs now.

[Thirtyfive]

May be a silly question..... But if mep for whatever reason in the distant future liquidate, will llumar just distribute its own film under llumar I'm Australia and not another rep company? And who will be the next film company to try to make such an enterprise?

[Glass Tinting Supplies]

MEP Brisbane closed yesterday. There was good and helpful people there, I'm sad to see they are out of jobs now. In the same way that others have been put out of jobs by MEP.

When 1 door closes, another door opens. Good and helpful people are hard to find, so I am sure they won't be out of a job for long.

 

35, MEP are not about to liquidate.. The bubble isn't bursting, it is just deflating..  They are still Australia's largest supplier of window film, they are just trying to consolidate their holdings. They supply to very few small independents now (And for good reason) so no need to have pickup locations, just 1 mega warehouse to supply M1 and the franchises. They are basically waving the white flag to getting the small guys business. That's why it is cool to start with nothing... You have nothing to lose

 

There are lots of hands in the pie, and I would guess that World Mark will need to clear the ranks in the near future. There are things coming that they won't be able to buy their way out of. And ST are all about market share... Market share... Market share..

So much rests on the Enerlogic, if another manny can produce an equivalent film, they will be very, very nervous.

[Ozimad]

At the end of the day it may not be a loss of market share or etc at all but simply a move to cut cost which is the way many businesses are going these days.

Im sure they have a good logistical structure in place to supply around quite swiftly without overheads of a warehouse in each state.

[Glass Tinting Supplies]

Hey Ozi,

It will be a loss of market share as some of the guys out there simply buy there film from the place that is near by, but this move will surely allow MEP to bring their price down inline with the market at the mo..

So, if suddenly LuLu is at a nicer price, then some people will be happy to wait a couple of days to get their gear.. However, as you know.. Sometimes you need it then and there, so you must get it from the closest supplier.

 

I will say this.. I don't care how fast MEP are at getting orders ready for pickup from the couriers.. I can say 100% for sure that GTS uses the best courier service in Australia, but even if we work our buts off getting orders together in record time, we are still bound by the delivery time.. And even the best delivery service in Australia could do with a serious kick up the ass. So unless MEP are running their own trucks, they will be limited by the company responsible for getting their product from the warehouse to the tinters fingers.

 

There will be plenty of headaches that is for sure.