Larson Juhl no longer a Crescent distributor...?

[Verdaccio]

Effect of this business decision on smaller framing shops:

Most suppliers today have a minimum order level of $100 that you need to reach in order to avoid a delivery and sometimes a fuel fee.

Larson no longer carrying Crescent means that I have now started to compare the companies of frame and mat and (where possible) NOT put crescent mats with Larson frames.

I have noted now that I often have to place orders from both my suppliers in order to fill my whole order - making it harder thereby to reach the $100 minimum with both and subjecting me to a possible weekly additional cost of $10 to $20.

Thus, I am now -only- ordering one time per week rather than ordering two times if I could get to the $100 minimum, and I am now actively selecting frames for customers based on the brand of mat we selected and more often than not selecting Larson out.

I have ordered more Omega frames for my wall and have pulled some Larson samples to make room for them.

In effect, the disagreement between Larson and Crescent could cost their customers up to $1,000 extra in delivery fees every year, and (at least in my case) is costing Larson some amount of my business.

I admit my shop and my business is fairly tiny to Larson...but I wonder how many frame shops just like me there are in the country and how this will add up to affect Larson's business, delivery schedules, etc.

[Grey Owl]

Effect of this business decision on smaller framing shops:

I have noted now that I often have to place orders from both my suppliers in order to fill my whole order - making it harder thereby to reach the $100 minimum with both and subjecting me to a possible weekly additional cost of $10 to $20.

Thus, I am now -only- ordering one time per week rather than ordering two times if I could get to the $100 minimum, and I am now actively selecting frames for customers based on the brand of mat we selected and more often than not selecting Larson out.

I have ordered more Omega frames for my wall and have pulled some Larson samples to make room for them.

In effect, the disagreement between Larson and Crescent could cost their customers up to $1,000 extra in delivery fees every year, and (at least in my case) is costing Larson some amount of my business.

I admit my shop and my business is fairly tiny to Larson...but I wonder how many frame shops just like me there are in the country and how this will add up to affect Larson's business, delivery schedules, etc.

Great smaller frame shops probably watch their costs much closer. Good job of analysis. I also have added more Omega, and am taking down many of another supplier.

[tedh]

I'm doing the reverse: tossing Crescent and buying more BB and Artique. Increases my orders to way past the minimum for LJ. Crescent loses, and the other three win.

[Ylva]

I did not throw out Crescent mats, as there are many Crescent mats that I love.

I have 2 suppliers with the $100 delivery rule, one is LJ. If I sell a Crescent mat on a job, I will order my Bainbridge mat from the other supplier as well. So in that case, LJ loses that business.

However, if I know I am ordering from LJ, I will try not to sell a Crescent mat on a job.

In my opinion; both LJ and Crescent are losing with this decision. It might even out in the end, I don't know. I even don't care. They made a decision for their businesses, just like I make decisions for my own business.

I will continue to do business with both of them as I think both companies are good companies to work with.

[Jeff Ferguson]

Thanks to all posters for an intriguing 16 pages of reading. I check the GRUMBLE every few years, but never considered posting, since I never wanted any posts to be construed as "self serving" in any fashion. But, given that I find posts by some Crescent and LJ folks in this thread, I'll intuit that manufacturers can post and not necessarily be accused of disingenuous motives.

In Larson's defense, I would offer that our market signals certainly confirm LJ's contention that Crescent was (direct) selling other customers at better prices than they were probably giving LJ. In the 12 years we've been in business, we've seen nothing but pricing erosion at the wholesale level, and it's not us or other small entities that are causing it -- our costs rise but our price points are forced by larger players, at least in the bulk sales arena. Also, matboard color diversity most certainly follows the 80/20 rule -- with LJ being so large, they necessarily can suffer serious cash flow impairment from insufficient inventory turns on the 80% of colors that probably aren't turning even once per year. Warren Buffett pays his managers to be smart and to best deploy their cash; thus the reality of that 80% problem would force any responsible manager to want to drop the dead movers. This is a major conflict with Crescent's "Full-Line Distributor" requirement that their entire line be stocked; in fact, we've always understood that when Crescent releases new colors, those new colors are automatically "pushed" onto their distributors. An interesting question is whether Crescent buys back unsold inventory from their distributors on colors they discontinue?

The Omega/Canada distributorship of the Crescent line may cause channel contention given that (I believe) Peterboro has a pretty tight relationship with Omega; I should stop there.

Good luck to all; this will be an interesting end-game for two very large players in the industry.

[Bill Ross]

First-- What is a "full-line distributor? If a vendor does not want to carry the full line, then all they have to say is that they are not a full-line distributor. If Larson - Juhl does not want to carry the full line, then just tell the framers they are not full- line distributors. They now tell us that not all their products are in all locations. That would have solved the problem of not stocking the complete line. Larson does this all the time by removing dead stock from their inventory.

As for the new colors-- Crescent or any other company only introduces new product if the framing customer ask for new colors. The reason we go to Trade Shows is see new products and old friends and I'm sure other shops do the same.

As for the statement --"Do they buy back old inventory?" I racks of moulding that our vendors have removed from their line and not once have they ever offered to have me sent it back for new stock. I know your answer--"You purchased the goods" because I though it would sell and that is why any business purchases inventory. As a vendor-Larson --knew months ahead that items were being introduced and removed and could adjust their purchases and stock. The real difference is that Larson can sell the matboard at cost to people using "flaw boards" in their CMC and recover cost. As a framer we can't always recover our cost.

Why would Crescent not give their best price (cost) to someone with a line that competes with their products. As a framer who cuts mats for other frame shops--"Why would I give them my best price?", when I'm doing all the work. I know you might say --"Without them you would not have had the order", but I would answer neither would they--because they could not cut the mat. Like Crescent --we need the small customers who are there every day. Crescent needs their vendor network and can not only serve the large vendors.

I hope framers support Crescent for looking out for the framer's interest. My customers come to us because we offer a large selection of products. Forty eight years ago when we started the selection in matboards was either smooth/or ruff--white, cream or black and if you needed another color you painted it to match the artwork. I like new colors.