Will Distributors Lose the CFL Market?
Energy efficiency is coming to the home.
For years, the knock on CFLs was the price and the form. When CFLs were not price competitive with incandescents, many said the product category wouldn’t take off. But all this is changing.
Over the past couple of months, Home Depot and Lowe’s have been offering CFLs at attractive prices. Yes higher than incandescents, but a 4 pack of CFLs that are comparable to 60W lamps is about $6 and 65W indoor floods are about $7. With rising electricity costs and the increased focus on “green” and energy efficiency, CFLs are selling better than ever. And WalMart will start selling CFLs at 3000 of its stores starting today. With retailers entering the market in a big way, CFLs are no longer a fad, they will start to become mainstream.
Yes people need to become comfortable with a whiter light, but people will adapt…
Plus, there are efforts in Congress to phase out incandescent lamps over the next 5-10 years.
And the kicker is…most of the CFLs are manufactured by “contract” manufacturers…either private labeled for the big 3 lamp companies or private labeled for retailers (i.e. HD’s brand is N-Vision).
Do you have a source to compete? Are your customers starting to ask for CFLs? Aside from the big 3 as sources, what are your options to compete (obviously the HD’s of the world have a price and margin advantage by going direct vs. “a middle manufacturer).