The Weekly Phone Call
October 29 2015
It is a symptom of the grants that are associated with Renewable Energy products that in a similar way that day turns to night, some renewable energy companies will setup and take advantage of the business opportunities that arise and disappear as soon as the grants take a dip or disappear. There is nothing like making a quick buck!. At Daly we have structured our business so that we are not reliant on our clients depending on grants. By the same token, there are companies who will aim for volume sales at tight margins. The danger here is that if a bad patch comes by, margins get squeezed and cash flow becomes an issue. It is easy to source cheap materials. This goes on in all walks of life. Our clients value the quality of the products and systems we provide and will ask questions if we do tend to be more expensive. Our clients by their nature will have researched heavily the benefits of a renewable energy system before speaking to us and they choose to work with us as we supply engineering solutions of the highest specification that will stand the test of time. In our view, our systems will prove to be an astute investment and if there are grants to be had, that is very much bonus territory.
At Daly our customers are not for a particular year but for life. There is not a week goes by when we get a call from someone in Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland or Scotland asking if we can fix or service their system as the company that designed or installed it have gone out of business, are too busy or just simply want to move on to make a quick profit on the next job. We service systems for our customers going back 8 years and in that period have fixed or supplied new systems for customers who have been left high and dry by their previous installers. While it may be great to get a cheap job at the time, please consider the future consequences if the company you opt for are no longer in business if you ever do have an issue. As Renewable Energy Systems are quite specialized, it is more difficult to find Engineers to find solutions if they have not been involved in the project initially. Site visits we have carried out on systems installed by other companies who are no longer trading have shed the light as to why they were cheaper at the time as the system design and installation in a lot of cases has been to a very poor standard.
As much as we always try our best to help people that are desperate, we would encourage our potential clients to ask the question – Who are you buying from? What is their trading history? Are they Engineers who understand the theory behind the Sales Pitch?
On that note we will finish with a famous John Ruskin quote:
“There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man’s lawful prey.”
