Now May NOT Be the Best Time to Sell Your Machinery
In this extraordinarily difficult business climate, one strategy that some bookbinders are strongly considering is to sell what they determine to be excess machinery. As someone who could take advantage of this opportunity, I would strongly recommend that you take a breath and try to look at this objectively. I have been getting quite a few calls in recent months from customers who have decided to sell their machinery. More often than not however, this machinery is more than twenty years old. Many times - considerably older. My suggestion is always the same. Unless you plan to utilize the space currently taken up by this machine for something else that will add profitability to your business – don’t sell the machine. At least not now.
The printing and bookbinding machinery market is extremely depressed right now – no surprise to anyone reading this article. The value of your equipment in the marketplace – no matter how useful or productive you believe this machine to be – is much less than you expect. The primary market for your machinery as of this writing is the Export Market. Such machinery must be prepared for ship board transportation, and loaded onto transoceanic containers – all of which require additional cost to the buyer. These machines are being sold to third world nations that inherently require a low selling price to be marketable.
As I have written in previous articles, ours is a “machinery intensive” business. Just because a particular piece of machinery has been idle for an extended period of time, does not mean that it can’t have a useful role in your business sometime in the near future. More important, if after you sell the machinery, you need to purchase a similar piece of equipment in the near future, it would most probably cost more than what you sold your original machine for. That original machine is the “devil you know”, whatever its shortcomings – a bad feeder, scratching in the trimmer, uneven glue application – this is something that you have learned to deal with. However, a machine recently purchased could bring with it a few surprises that could inhibit productivity and quality until you determine how to resolve the problems.
If you need the floor space for something else – something that will add to your capability to meet the needs of your customers, and add to the profitability of your business, then by all means do whatever you need to do to accommodate this new service. It may be a few tables for hand work, a newer piece of machinery, or just additional space for more efficient traffic flow. If this is the case then it makes sense to sell the machine that you have determined you no longer need.
Right now, if you determine that selling the machine is the best course of action, make your primary goal just that - the removal of the machine – not the revenue the sale will generate. Printing and bookbinding machinery are just not realizing the values they are worth. Whatever you might believe you should sell the machine for, expect to get less. If you work with a machinery dealer, make sure it is someone whom you've known for sometime or someone who has come highly recommended. There are some who are eager to take advantage of the current situation, and there are those who can be of genuine help to you and your business.
Good luck!
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