Any change in European Tool Cost?

[Brian Kent]

The Euro is falling. The dollar is rising. A euro is now worth $1.05. Has anyone noticed a downward trend in the prices of European made tools?

[Eduard Nemirovsky]

Felder/Hammer just decrease prices recently, at least what I got from them. And Minimax doing some promo now, maybe for the same reason.
Ed

[John Sanford]

Festool is reputed to be about to adjust prices, we'll see what they actually do come April. Pfeil's carving tools are on sale right now at Woodcraft, except, being Swiss, the exchange rate hasn't improved (for US buyers) nearly as much. The British Pound is also falling relative to the dollar, but again, not nearly as much as the Euro has done. In short, it should be an excellent time to buy some fine Continental goodies.

The Euro has fallen 25% in the last year, Swiss Franc 10% and the Pound 8.5%.

I don't know if the European hand tool makers (Knipex, NWS, Beta, Bahco, Wiha, Wera, Felo, etc) have adjusted or not.

[Larry Edgerton]

I"m waiting for the Aigner fence to get down to $500, then I'll buy one.

Still waiting........

[Kent A Bathurst]

An article that may be of interest to you in the Washington Post:


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/03/13/this-is-why-the-euro-is-collapsing/?hpid=z7

One key takeaway is that:

"....Deutsche Bank expects the euro to keep falling (http://www.ft.com/intl/fastft/289262) to $0.90 by the end of 2016 and $0.85 by the end of 2017."

[Peter Kelly]

Festool of course is raising prices in the US and Canada :rolleyes:

[Malcolm Schweizer]

There need not be a price adjustment by the mfg. The decrease in the value of the currency is the adjustment. It still sells for € X.xx but that will cost you fewer $$$. The one that needs to do the adjustment is the retailer who bought it for fewer $. The exception would be where the manufacturer sets a fixed retail price and does not allow discounts off their fixed price. (Oakley Sunglasses is the only example I can think of.)


I personally just upgraded my collection of Japanese waterstones and added a Japanese bronze hammer to the hammer drawer. Also I bought a round Chosera 1k that is only sold in Europe. Both yen and Euro rates made those purchases cheaper.

The next vacation will also likely be to Europe or Japan. What interests me is what is going to happen to the Cayman Dollar which has forever been at or near $1.25 to the USD. I travel there often on business. It is not tied to the USD like Bermuda or Bahamas, but is actually an independent currency. So far that has worked well for them, but with the decline in offshore banking the Cayman economy is not what it used to be. If their currency starts to tank it has less to fall back on than larger economies with manufacturing and other industries. Sorry for going slightly off topic, but currency exchange rates affect me often.

[John Sanford]

There need not be a price adjustment by the mfg. The decrease in the value of the currency is the adjustment. It still sells for € X.xx but that will cost you fewer $$$. The one that needs to do the adjustment is the retailer who bought it for fewer $. The exception would be where the manufacturer sets a fixed retail price and does not allow discounts off their fixed price. (Oakley Sunglasses is the only example I can think of.)
Festool does exactly that. Fixed pricing, abide by it or lose the dealership.