Thread: Festool Price Maintenance...or not?

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

Ian, as far as the whole "we should be able to fix prices because our products are the best, out pre-sales is the best, we demonstrate tools, we'll lend it to you for a day, and so on with all the other arguments they mount....of the 10-12 Festools that I have purchased (and sold 4 or 5) I have had none of them demonstrated, loaned or anything else that requires any kind of price fixing that can be justified. I have purchased them after reading reviews or other recommendations.

As far as I am concerned the RPM is a completely unjustifiable action - what the ACCC is saying is preposterous: Festool is the most unique product on sale in all of Australia - not just amongst tools but amongst every single product of ANY kind that is for sale in the country. I say BOLLOCKS!

Well Festool is certainly doing a good job of controlling their own market. Apart from price fixing they try as hard as they possibly can to lock the purchaser into using only Festool consumables. Take one of the belt sanders as an example (the bigger one). The Australian model has a different length belt to other countries that the same sander is sold in. It goes something like (and I can't remember exactly so there may be an anomaly in here) if you buy the Australian model, and pay the extra Stralia Tax, you can use standard belts which are generally available but if you buy the European model the belts are 10mm shorter and that means you either
get them custom made,
or buy the crazy expensive Festool belts (here or there, they are extraordinarily expensive compared to USD1.00 each from Klingspor),
or modify the machine to take longer belts.

There are other examples of this within the Festool range such as the 491594 Clamp for $93.50 - that's ONE clamp - not a pair. One miserable clamp that you can get in another brand (perzackly the same clamp in different livery) from Germany for €27.90 or about $46 including double our GST rate. That clamp is also available out of China (and make no mistake - that's where the Festool version comes from) for peanuts.

I'm thinking that Beardy has not done any real research into Festool products and doesn't know much about how the system comes together to try to obviate any other remedies being put into place. I have done extensive research over the years. It pays to know what is being defended or attacked, rather than just backing a principle, because the devil is often in the detail, especially with something like the complexity of the Festool system and all of the bits and pieces that go with it.


"Pretty" what? It looks like a word has been censored out of that. Regardless, this argument doesn't hold water. Given that we are talking about the prices being too high, if somebody makes an object to wholesale for $nn why the hell would they care if the retailer sells it for less than usual/RRP? As long as the wholesaler makes the margin they require, then let the free market determine what the acceptable retail price is. Some retailers will discount, some will not and will sell less as a result. If they want to guff on about how much pre-sales effort they put in (and we all know how much stupendous effort Carbatec put in, just to single out one Festool dealer)


Yes there are big differences, and Ian has pointed out one. Other differences are that McDonalds are not exactly at the premium end of the food spectrum, and their prices are pretty competitive....if you want that sort of thing. There are numerous other options in a similar price bracket, and many of them are better quality, so the whole comparison just doesn't work in any sense I'm afraid.

This debate will go on and on but in summary

It doesn’t matter about the detail of individual prices compared to other countries, I am defending a businesses right to sell a product for whatever price they choose and suffer the consequences of their actions by consumers as a result if the consumer does not accept it.......it is the consumers choice. It is a discretionary purchase item that no one needs to buy if they choose not to. You make it sound like we are forced to buy Festool tools, the only price that they are controlling is on their own products

“Pretty” was a censoring correction, I am sure you got the drift of where I was going.

Yes it it does matter to a company if their retail price gets undermined regardless that they got their wholesale price as firstly it undermines their whole business model branding of being a high end exclusive product in the market place. This is consistent with many products at the pointy end of their sector in cars, fashion items, watches, white goods etc etc. Price is part of maintaining their image in the marketplace, others may set their image by being cheap.
Secondly if say one of their retailers chose to sell their products heavily discounted online via eBay or gumtree etc with no support or backup offered and rely on volume to get their profit margin. The rest of the retailers of that product are going to get annoyed pretty quick when everyone uses their bricks and mortar store to look at and test the product and then buys it off the competitors online store to save money. Would that not have a negative impact on their business structure as a whole?

The pricing principles with McDonald’s is the same, it doesn’t matter that it is at the cheaper end of their marketplace the price is still controlled and I can’t haggle one store against another on the price of a BigMac

If Festool maintained their current business model but lowered the price to say Ryobi level do you think we would still be having this debate? The principal has not changed though.

At the end of the day we are talking about a discretionry purchase item in a sector that this player has a small market share in. If they are not doing a good job at it there is opportunity for one of the other suppliers to step up and take advantage of their niche in the marketplace. Think about how many high quality brands we have lost over the years as they haven’t held their position, Festool is no different if another player comes in and does it better than them.

If you don’t like what they are offering don’t buy it, pretty simple really. There are plenty of other options to choose from.

Originally Posted by Beardy

...

At the end of the day we are talking about a discretionry purchase item in a sector that this player has a small market share in. If they are not doing a good job at it there is opportunity for one of the other suppliers to step up and take advantage of their niche in the marketplace. Think about how many high quality brands we have lost over the years as they haven’t held their position, Festool is no different if another player comes in and does it better than them.

Strongly agree. Not just with tools either. There seems to be a race to the bottom effect on so many consumer goods. Quality just can't seem to hold up to the modern consumerist pressure/drive to buy more, have more, upgrade/replace often. Manufacturers often end up compromising on quality and making things cheaper to satisfy the market's desire for increased levels of consumption, and in many cases ultimately to the detriment of the ignorant consumer who may have been better overall paying more, having less, but getting a quality product - not to mention the benefit to the environment / scarce resources. Why do washing machines, fridges, etc only come with a 2 year warranty in most cases? That's not sustainable long-term. I believe that the internet and easy access to all price information as well as cheap shipping has exacerbated this issue - it's a pretty disciplined person who can see a price for an expensive, discretionary product, much cheaper online and still buy it from a local bricks and mortar store - even if they see the merit in it and want to do so (I certainly can't pass up a 25% or 30% discount on something I don't really need - but I make it a rule to never go into a store to check out a product in person if I'm going to but online). So if price maintenance serves to maintain a pocket of quality goods in the market I'm fully supportive - particularly for a product that has so many alternatives / substitutes. It would of course be different if we were talking a more essential, un-substitutable product like fuel... oh wait .

Cheers,

Dom

I agree that the RPS is only driving the same outcomes as say Apple's products and sales (and many other products, as mentioned before). The agency agreements that are in place all help drive a consistent experience and outcome, no matter what the product/brand in question. As others have said, it ultimately comes down to consumer choice - you have the choice of going to another reseller of the same product (but there will be no discernable price break for you in doing so) or you can work with a retailer you know/trust/have a relationship with, and get all the non-tangibles that having a relationship with a seller offers. Or you can vote with your wallet and not buy the sawstop table saw or the kapex, and buy a more value-oriented equivalent. Also agree that in our home hacker / weekend warrior / not a commercial entity space the deciding factor is often the value for outlay part of the equation, where for commercial vendors it clearly tips towards productivity and reliability.

I suspect (but have no experience) that the same could be said for luxury cars. Would a Maserati dealer haggle on a few thousand bucks difference in price? You often can get a better deal by shopping around on your every day brands, but even there the cost of doing business in a dealer is still reasonably consistent so you're never going to see huge differences across the board.

Originally Posted by Beardy

It doesn’t matter about the detail of individual prices compared to other countries Well yes it does, because that is where the problem is
You make it sound like we are forced to buy Festool tools, the only price that they are controlling is on their own products In Australia we are forced to buy Festool products at comparatively higher prices than elsewhere in too many of the cases, but not all.

Yes it it does matter to a company if their retail price gets undermined regardless that they got their wholesale price as firstly it undermines their whole business model branding of being a high end exclusive product in the market place.
Secondly if say one of their retailers chose to sell their products heavily discounted online via eBay or gumtree etc with no support or backup offered and rely on volume to get their profit margin. The rest of the retailers of that product are going to get annoyed pretty quick when everyone uses their bricks and mortar store to look at and test the product and then buys it off the competitors online store to save money. Would that not have a negative impact on their business structure as a whole?

If Festool maintained their current business model but lowered the price to say Ryobi level do you think we would still be having this debate? That is a ridiculous comparison, for quite obvious reasons

Some of the arguments here are starting to sound like someone a few years back who said they don't mind the excessive cost of Festools here because it makes them feel like part of a special club.

Furthermore ebay in Europe is littered with people selling Festool, so that argument doesn't stack up either.

Let's be very clear about this: it is all about what is reasonable. The complaint is not that Festool is expensive, it is the fact that they are too often excessively expensive in Australia compared to elsewhere. It used to be right across the range but some improvement has been made. The prices of Festools in Europe and the USA are still higher than many other brands, but they are of a better quality (mostly), so that is reasonable. Also note that in those places they have a much broader range of higher quality tools to choose from, which means there is more competition in the premium end, and that keeps prices sensible. Brands like Mafell for example. It only takes one other brand to be present in the market for some competition to happen. When there is only one brand they can tend to do what they like.

The situation in Australia is quite different: there is only one premium tool brand available and so because there is no competition they have been charging even higher prices because they can. Sure there are plenty of businesses that can still afford the excessive prices and will still get that back in time saving. No question about that. However, ask them if they would be happier to pay a price more in line with pricing from overseas, and I think we know what the answer would be.

If Festool pricing was in line with overseas suppliers we would not be having this discussion, and I doubt that I would be concerned that they were the same price everywhere. But what has happened is that the ACCC has taken away our opportunity to purchase from dealers who are prepared to bring the prices more in line, and that stinks. THAT is the complaint!!

Originally Posted by Beardy

If you don’t like what they are offering don’t buy it, pretty simple really. There are plenty of other options to choose from.

Yes, there are other options: buy Festool overseas for example! How can it be that the difference in price is so large that even after international freight is applied there is still a big enough saving to justify foregoing a 3 year warranty (and it's not just because of saving 10% GST - NOBODY chooses to lose a warranty for a miserable 10% saving). In many cases even if the GST was applied it is still worthwhile buying overseas.

I have purchased 14 Festool/Protool tools, and kept 9 of them. Of that 14, 5 have been purchased here because the pricing was sensible. They were still expensive items, but worth the "reasonable" premium. It is the unreasonable premium that is objectionable.

At one point I had the absurdly overpriced (in any market) CMS table plus TS75 saw, with all the extensions and sliders, as my table saw. It was a ridiculously difficult and fiddly piece of kit to use (15 minutes to take the saw out to use it as a track saw). Cost here would have been $4500 back then (2012) and I paid about half that including a frightening amount of freight. You can buy a SawStop Cabinet Saw for that sort of money. I sold the for no loss after 3-4 years and purchased a DeWalt table saw for about $1000 which absolutely KILLS the CMS for performance. The point being that not all Festools are premium performance, despite their premium price, but one may not know that until too late.

It sounds as though you think the RPM should be allowed to everybody? Or should it just be allowed to Festool? If so, what is so special about this one product within all of the products sold in this country?

I think we can probably safely say that if Mafell did have a presence here then the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission would not have granted this exception to Festool.

At the end of the day I completely agree Festool stuff is incredibly expensive, but for me and I suspect for most others given the popularity of Festool stuff, the quality and longevity are invaluable, and really, most people in OZ have become inured to being ripped off in general anyway due to the way imports work here, (except for the lovely cheap Chinese stuff!).

The usability also too is key here. The difference between using a Makita sander most of a day and a Festool one is worlds apart, what value do you place on the ability to do a better job easier, more efficient, and less likely to develop a severe case of tendinitis or RSI? As someone who's worked in sawmills and done work on the side the last 4 decades these are very real things to factor in, and more so the older you get.

The other thing as I mentioned earlier is most of my Festool (Festo) stuff was bought in the 1980's and is used pretty much every day. I had a control module (power surge damage) replaced in my half sheet sander around 2000 which cost $175 at the time, my wife baulked at it, but I was stoked to get the sander working again and would have happily paid more. My old trusty dusty SR5E (same model as attached pic) which I think is circa 1984'ish, is still going strong, and as I have a clamp arrangement on the bag to facilitate emptying and reusing them, I'm still only on my third bag!

And the sandpaper, even the Festo sandpaper lasts for ages in use! I still have a lifetime worth of sandpaper thinking I would chew through it a rate of knots when I bought them!

The only other brand I've used that was on par was the very early ELU stuff, I bought the TGS172 flipsaw with all the extension/sliding tables from Alltools or Total Tools when it was it was released (circa early/mid 80's?), and from memory I paid around $2000-$2500, god knows how many weeks pay that was at the time, it was certainly a far greater amount than the total cost of the CMS table plus TS75 saw mentioned above!

But it's also still going on strong, and has been a fantastic tool. For things that count, buy well, buy once is now my motto after blowing untold amounts on crappy tool/appliances over the years.

My thoughts!

Originally Posted by aarggh

most people in OZ have become inured to being ripped off in general anyway due to the way imports work here, (except for the lovely cheap Chinese stuff!).

That's the thing - Makita, Metabo, Bosch and many other brands are of a similar price here to overseas. If they can do it, so can every brand. (and the whole "more costly real estate, GST, higher wages blah blah" argument goes down the gurgler because those brands have similar pricing.....)

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

Let's be very clear about this: it is all about what is reasonable. The complaint is not that Festool is expensive, it is the fact that they are too often excessively expensive in Australia compared to elsewhere.

That is not the point being argued here, the point being argued is that Festool are allowed to fix the retail price. Festool in Germany sets the wholesale price into Oz then that sets the pricing for retail sales. The customer only sees the retail price not the back end costs to get the product to market and that is set by the wholesale price + import costs and the retail price is set by that + the margin for the Oz distributor to make a dollar. No one here can even begin to speculate what the landed cost is and what the margins are, most presume that the margins are huge but there is no proof of that because the import wholesale price might be set very high for this country so that sets the levels of the retail price.

Further to the above and I can here the roof at Katoomba leaving the rest of the building at high speed It might be the case that the margins are so thin after importing that without RRP the brand would not survive in this country. I have no idea if this is the case or not just something else that might impact on the situation.

Originally Posted by Chris Parks

That is not the point being argued here, the point being argued is that Festool are allowed to fix the retail price.

It's both Chris, because they are inextricably linked.

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

If Festool pricing was in line with overseas suppliers we would not be having this discussion, and I doubt that I would be concerned that they were the same price everywhere.

By that I mean everywhere in Oz, therefore I would not be objecting to the fixed pricing if the prices were fair compared to overseas.

Originally Posted by Chris Parks

Festool in Germany sets the wholesale price into Oz then that sets the pricing for retail sales. ...... the import wholesale price might be set very high for this country so that sets the levels of the retail price.

I doubt there would be much variation in the wholesale price settings between the countries.

Nobody has explained why the prices of some tools have stayed static here whilst they have increased elsewhere, or why the price of the Dominoes Systainer has dropped by over $100. We will never know for certain, but I very much doubt that Festool in Germany have reduced the wholesale price to Oz on selected items. I would bet things very precious to me that the lower prices have been set by the Oz operation, and I don't mean the retailers.

The thrust of the thread just by its name is to debate "price fixing" which applies to any supplier seeking and getting the permission to fix a retail price. Dom the OP could just as be easily looking at a lower end brand if they had a fixed RRP policy. The level of that price either high or low is not the point though historically in these Festool debates it quickly and wrongly goes down the path of the very high RRP is caused by the price fixing. The prices are high in every country without a fixed RRP so it does not follow that having a set RRP in this country causes the price to be higher on their tools by many hundreds of dollars above other tool brands. To expect all countries to have a level price structure is totally unrealistic for so many reasons that it is impossible.

Let's look at a Bosch product the 12" glide saw

Australia $1249 https://www.totaltools.com.au/113604...and-0615990j2b

New Zealand $1699 http://www.powertoolshop.nz/product/...sch-glide-saw/

America $574.99 https://www.amazon.com/Bosch-120-Vol.../dp/B004323NNC

Britain: Between 1035 & 1230 Pounds https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mitre-Saws-...%2Cp_4%3ABosch

It would seem to me that NZ cops the rough end of the pineapple and the US wins by miles. I think that illustrates that no company does what you ask and that is have a near level pricing structure across all countries though in this case the UK and Oz are pretty damned close as Axminster list it for 1300AUD.

I agree with what Chris said. You can’t expect the pricing between countries to be comparable when no other aspect of the economies are the same. If the market for Festool was so lucrative why aren’t the other high end brands here for the gravy train?

My brother-in-law was in the automotive electrical industry and he went to a big trade fair in Germany looking to import product here to sell. He said a lot of the suppliers were not even interested in talking to him as our market is too small and not worth the hassle. I had a similar experience at the trade fairs in China looking at tools, the minimum order quantities some of the manufacturers want is more than would be sold here Australia wide let alone from a single supplier in the marketplace
A friend of mine is a car salesman for Porsche, I can’t remember the exact figures he to,d me but there are 3 or 4 thousand new Porsche’s sold each year here about 55,000 a year in the USA and 60 something thousand in China. I think it would be a reasonable assumption that the countries with the bigger sales volumes would be getting them at a much better price than the low volume ones. Porsche’s are close to half the price in the USA to what they are here.

likewise I don’t think you can compare the pricing structures of high sales volume tools from Makita etc that are made in China and sold everywhere in this country with a low volume niche market product from Europe.

This discussion got me curious as to the price difference on Festool kit here in Australia compared to a couple of other major markets - UK, USA and Germany.

I did some comparisons on price tonight based on conversion rates right now - bear in mind, when determining world wide pricing, currency fluctuations will always cause some variation in prices (i.e. the parent company will never dynamically adjust pricing, this will be done perhaps only once or twice per year). I will say at the outset that I went into this expecting that the results would show a disproportionately higher cost for Australian purchases. I did not "cherry pick" my examples, I literally picked these examples "on the fly", whatever the result would be I would let stand. I could have done more examples, but it's a bit time-intensive to look up, and calculate, tabulate and summarise

Note I'm going to leave in local taxes in all comparisons, as ours will also include GST. All prices sourced from Festool sites in the local market (see links)

Let's take a look at the Kapex 120:

Australia: Price=AUD$1999.00 Link: https://www.festool.com.au/products/...itre-saw_57530
Chermany: Price=AUD$2473.57 Link: https://www.festool.de/produkte/saeg...2---ks-120-reb
UK: Price=AUD$2581.21 Link: https://www.festool.co.uk/products/s...20-reb-gb-240v
USA: Price=AUD$2074.88 Link: https://www.festoolusa.com/products/...-ks-120-eb-usa

Summary: Australia is the cheapest place to buy this tool, slightly in front of USA, and significantly in front of UK & Germany


How about a Domino 500 Plus:

Australia: Price=AUD$1649.00 Link: https://www.festool.com.au/products/...machine_574328
Germany: Price=AUD$1546.71 Link: https://www.festool.de/produkte/domi...-df-500-q-plus
UK: Price=AUD$1614.90 Link: https://www.festool.co.uk/products/d...q-plus-gb-240v
USA: Price=AUD$1349.90 Link: https://www.festoolusa.com/products/...500-q-plus-usa

Summary: Australia is close to UK price, somewhat more expensive than Germany and significantly more expensive than USA.


Last on the list of machinery, let's check the OF1400 router:

Australia: Price=AUD$1235.00 Link: https://www.festool.com.au/products/...-router_574346
Germany: Price=AUD$1204.98 Link: https://www.festool.de/produkte/frae...-1400-ebq-plus
UK: Price=AUD$1258.40 Link: https://www.festool.co.uk/products/r...q-plus-gb-240v
USA: Price=AUD$843.65 Link: https://www.festoolusa.com/products/...-eq-f-plus-usa

Summary: Australia is very close to pricing in Germany and UK, and all three are significantly more expensive than USA


Let's check a couple of consumables, to see the story there. I'll take a 100 pack of 150mm Granat 100 grit:

Australia: Price=AUD$99.00 (link not possible due to site design, I have chosen the 48 hole version)
Germany: Price=AUD$145.77 Link: https://www.festool.de/zubehoer/5751...048-p100-gr100
UK: Price=AUD$152.34 Link: https://www.festool.co.uk/accessory/...048-p100-gr100
USA: Price=AUD$95.60 Link: https://www.festoolusa.com/accessory...048-p100-gr100

Summary: Australia and USA are significantly cheaper than Germany and UK


Another consumable - 8mm x 50mm Domino 500 tenons (pack of 600):

Australia: Price=AUD$170.01 Link: https://www.festool.com.au/products/...-x-50mm_493299
Germany: Price=AUD$152.10 Link: https://www.festool.de/zubehoer/493299---d-8x50600-bu
UK: Price=AUD$158.91 Link: https://www.festool.co.uk/accessory/...--d-8x50600-bu
USA: Price=AUD$139.13 Link: https://www.festoolusa.com/accessory...--d-8x50600-bu

Summary: Australia is somewhat more expensive than Germany and UK, and these in turn are somewhat more expensive than USA


Finally, I chose a "hard" accessory, a 1400mm rail for a track saw:

Australia: Price=AUD$219.00 Link: https://www.festool.com.au/products/...0mm-14m_491498
Germany: Price=AUD$173.76 Link: https://www.festool.de/produkte/fueh...498---fs-14002
UK: Price=AUD$181.72 Link: https://www.festool.co.uk/products/g...498---fs-14002
USA: Price=AUD$203.78 Link: https://www.festoolusa.com/products/...498---fs-14002

Summary: Australia is somewhat more expensive than USA, and in turn the USA is somewhat more expensive than Germany and UK.


As we can see, pricing is a bit scattered as to whom is the cheapest and whom isn't. I think the clear trend in the numbers above shows the USA are consistently cheaper than other markets, though it should be noted the Festool USA website does not appear to show taxes, likely because these vary from state to state (and have become more complex recently). This will potentially add a percentage on to the USA price in all cases.

Perhaps a clearer idea could be gathered from making a shopping basket of all these items (I do realise it's an unlikely basket, but it'll give an overall point of view). So, adding up all the items we come to:

Australia: Price=AUD$5371.01
Germany: Price=AUD$5696.89
UK: Price=AUD$5947.48
USA: Price=AUD$4706.94

We can see from the shopping basket totals, the USA comes out in front. Again, sales tax is likely to change that somewhat, but I don't believe it will make enough change to alter the fact that it's the cheapest Festool market, but it won't be by as much as appears here. Coming in second cheapest is Australia, followed by Germany and bringing up last place is the UK.

Based on all of this, I would have to ask if the perception of a considerable disparity in pricing here comparative to overseas is still the case? I do realise, and would fully agree that the type of pricing parity shown in this exercise wasn't always the case, but it appears, at least on the surface, there is little left to consider in this regard? I will note right here - Festool is a product that - irrespective of the pricing exercise here - is still priced above the market... the point of this exercise was not to discuss or prove/disprove that fact, rather, the object of this exercise was to examine the pricing difference between markets internationally.

Thanks for going to the effort of doing that Midnight Man, I must say I thought that Australia would of faired worse than that price wise.

From my my experience in a different life, manufacturers/wholesalers do not offer consistent discounting across the board of their products. They will offer some high volume turnover lines that are priced keenly with less discount available on a different model.

In my case, when negotiating a pricing structure we would discuss the items that I was more likely to be using and the pricing would be focused on those items.
For instance there was a particular Smeg oven I bought a lot of and I had a client ask for a different model that at RRP was only $100 more but my buy price was nearly $1,000 more for that item. The same went for bricks, tapware, door furniture, doors, architraves and skirting etc.

So all is not what it seems when comparing apples with apples

That's a huge and tedious effort MM, but unfortunately not actually indicative of what people pay in Germany or anywhere else in Europe. I understand that this is not deliberate on your part. About 6-7 years ago Festool.de was fined €6,000,000 (pretty sure that is the correct figure) aka $10,000,000 on current rates for ....guess what....price fixing! Since then the prices at dealers throughout Europe became super-competitive and this can be shown by my post from a week or two ago which bears repeating.

The prices in Germany go up every January and typically by 3% or perhaps a little less. The January following the fine saw a price rise of significantly more than that - hey somebody has to pay the fine and buggered if it will be the company responsible.

I think the number of retail sales per week that go through the festool.de site could be counted on both hands of a double amputee, because the differences are enormous.

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

Ok, so an example of pricing from different places for the ETS EC150/3 sander and replacement pad.

Prices are shown with the local tax still in place, sander with a systainer.
Australia $979
Replacement pad $89.50 (202460)
Box 50 P150grit 48 Hole Rubin $70.50 (575190)

USA ~$728 (USD510 at an ex.rate of 0.70)
Replacement Pad $66 (USD46) (202460)
Box 50 P150grit 48 Hole Rubin $54 (USD38) (575190)
There may well be local taxes to go on that but I'm not silly enough to try to work them out.....

UK festool.uk $1081 (£584.40 at an ex.rate of 0.54)
Replacement Pad ~$105 (£56.76)(202460)
Box 50 P150grit 48 Hole Rubin $77 (£41.64) (575190)
I'm pretty sure you can get cheaper in the UK but it got to tedious to find out.


Germany (Festool.de) ~$1055 (€643.79 at ex rate 0.61)
Replacement Pad ~$102 (€62.48) (202460)
Box 50 P150grit 48 Hole Rubin $75 (€45.82) (575190)

BUT
at a regular dealer in Germany, where they do not allow Retail Price Maintenance, even for Festool

The sander is $910 (€555)
Replacement Pad ~$76 (€46.30) (202460)
Box 50 P150grit 48 Hole Rubin ~$57 (€35) (575190)

You will note that I have not provided links to the dealer

So it can be seen that the USA is now the cheapest by a long way, even allowing for say 10% tax to go on that price.
Close to them is Germany (but from a dealer).
Australia is next
UK is the most expensive.

Note that this is for one tool/accessory only and other examples may very wildly, as they have in the past. There has never been a uniform pattern where one could say "Germany is cheapest, or USA is cheapest across the board".

So I'll just rearrange those numbers in the same layout that MM has:

Prices are shown with the local tax still in place, sander with a systainer.
Australia $979
Germany (Festool.de) ~$1055 (€643.79 at ex rate 0.61)
GERMAN DEALER The sander is $910 (€555)
UK festool.uk $1081 (£584.40 at an ex.rate of 0.54)
USA ~$728 (USD510 at an ex.rate of 0.70)

AUS Replacement pad $89.50 (202460)
Festool.de Replacement Pad ~$102 (€62.48) (202460)
GERMAN DEALER Replacement Pad ~$76 (€46.30) (202460)
UK Replacement Pad ~$105 (£56.76)(202460)
USA Replacement Pad $66 (USD46) (202460)

AUSBox 50 P150grit 48 Hole Rubin $70.50 (575190)
Festool.de Box 50 P150grit 48 Hole Rubin $75 (€45.82) (575190)
GERMAN DEALER Box 50 P150grit 48 Hole Rubin ~$57 (€35) (575190)
UK Box 50 P150grit 48 Hole Rubin $77 (£41.64) (575190)
USA Box 50 P150grit 48 Hole Rubin $54 (USD38) (575190)




Note that the pad and abrasives are fully 24-25% less from the dealer compared to Festool.de.