Fellers = CheetahWrap

[Kentucky Wraps]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Fellers only sells vinyl and banner material correct? where as Grimco sells sheet goods as well? Fellers doesn't exist up here, but grimco has always been great to us, they deliver on their own tucks which is a huge plus when you are buying oversize things like sheet goods and such.

Indeed, you are wrong. They are the "worlds largest wrap supply company".

 

[Kentucky Wraps]

You won't see me complaining. They have a subsidiary business catering specifically to the Paint Wrap industry.
(don't need a printer/laminator and other overhead to do that)
If they are offering materials cheaper with fast shipping...I'm all for it.
Not sure I've seen a good, logical argument against the idea of offering cheaper, faster, materials to the wrap industry.

I'M FOR IT!
I'm going to sign up right after I click the smiley face icon and hit Submit Reply.

 

[CanuckSigns]

Indeed, you are wrong. They are the "worlds largest wrap supply company".

Sorry, what I meant to say was do they only sell "roll goods" (vinyl of all kinds, banner material etc) or can you buy sheets of dibond, MDO etc from them as well?

The reason Grimco gets 90% of my business is that they sell sheet goods as well as vinyl/banner, most of the stuff we print gets applied to a substrate of some type and it doesn't make sense to buy the vinyl from company A, and the board from company B. Plus since they ship on their own trucks, I can place an order up until midnight, for next day delivery.

 

[Kentucky Wraps]

Sorry, what I meant to say was do they only sell "roll goods" (vinyl of all kinds, banner material etc) or can you buy sheets of dibond, MDO etc from them as well?

The reason Grimco gets 90% of my business is that they sell sheet goods as well as vinyl/banner, most of the stuff we print gets applied to a substrate of some type and it doesn't make sense to buy the vinyl from company A, and the board from company B. Plus since they ship on their own trucks, I can place an order up until midnight, for next day delivery.

No Fellers doesn't really sell substrate. However it makes perfect sense for me to buy my vinyl from company A (cheaper and next day shipping) and board from company B (only run their trucks once or twice a week to my town.)
It's different depending on where you live I suppose.

 

[synergy_jim]

I don't even care truthfully..... the wrap industry was lost in our area to a bunch of companies whoring themselves out anyways. If nothing else, this will make them go away. This is exactly why we moved on to carvings, sculptures, and 3D signage.

The wrap game is polluted.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

You won't see me complaining. They have a subsidiary business catering specifically to the Paint Wrap industry.
(don't need a printer/laminator and other overhead to do that)
If they are offering materials cheaper with fast shipping...I'm all for it.
Not sure I've seen a good, logical argument against the idea of offering cheaper, faster, materials to the wrap industry.

I'M FOR IT!
I'm going to sign up right after I click the smiley face icon and hit Submit Reply.

The problem isn't cheaper and faster to the industry, its that anyone can buy at below typical pricing. Don't believe me, I just did a guest order and ordered some 1080 and saved $30 from my previously negotiated prices with Fellers, Try it for yourself.

 

[CanuckSigns]

No Fellers doesn't really sell substrate. However it makes perfect sense for me to buy my vinyl from company A (cheaper and next day shipping) and board from company B (only run their trucks once or twice a week to my town.)
It's different depending on where you live I suppose.

Yeah the concept of Free shipping on orders over $100 is unheard of up here, every order I place I'm paying $15-$30 shipping, so it makes sense to consolidate my supplies as much as I can.

 

[Gino]

None of this matters much to me, either. The part I don't understand is..... 1/2 the sign shops buying this stuff ALREADY aren't set up as true legit sign shops..... and you're all competing with them. So, what's the difference ?? Everyone here talks about getting their sh!t cheaper and cheaper and now you're complaining. Why are you shooting the messenger ?? Ya get what ya pay for or how ya wanna do business.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

To me I don't care, we don't do color change wraps as a significant portion of our business. The thing I care about is the fact that Fellers, manufacturers, and some other suppliers feel its ok to circumvent the people that helped build them. To me its a slippery slope and will eventually lead to the obsolescence on individual business in this space.

These are all small nibbles at the market: 3M trying to go direct to consumer, Fellers last year with their open pricing website and now this new method, a few other major suppliers switching to a direct to consumer wholesale model... its all a test to see how far they can go.

 

[CanuckSigns]

I don't really understand the business model. I would think Fellers would prefer to sell larger orders to fewer customers (sign shops) rather than a bunch of tiny orders for 2 feet of carbon fiber vinyl to some boy racer in a civic.

But at the end of the day, this was a conscious decision by fellers, they knew how we felt from the last time they did this, so you have to imagine that they went into this knowing they were gonna **** off a lot of shops, and apparently they don't care.

 

[nikdoobs]

Yeah, we really don't mess with wraps either. After designing, going back & forth a million times with proofs, then installation... it gets to be very time consuming/expensive. If its someone who works here, or is close friends with someone who works here we will do it but we generally try to stay away from it.

 

[Kentucky Wraps]

I don't really understand the business model. I would think Fellers would prefer to sell larger orders to fewer customers (sign shops) rather than a bunch of tiny orders for 2 feet of carbon fiber vinyl to some boy racer in a civic.

But at the end of the day, this was a conscious decision by fellers, they knew how we felt from the last time they did this, so you have to imagine that they went into this knowing they were gonna **** off a lot of shops, and apparently they don't care.

I'll help you understand the business model.
Fellers doesn't want to mess with smaller orders to fewer customers...TRUE.
That's why they created Cheetah Wraps, which is SET UP to handle FEW products to smaller customers. They don't need forklifts and 4 acre properties to do that.
They are getting new customers that used to either order crap vinyl from china on ebay or come begging to bigger shops to order it for them while paying that bigger shop to be the middle man. They can now spend their money on higher quality materials with confidence and hopefully not give the wrap biz a bad reputation.

Fellers still makes money by serving the wrap community without throwing a wrench in their larger warehouse machines.
If all these rants are because there is a fear that customers could get raw materials at the same place & price that we do...you are missing some key factors.
1. That doesn't mean they can produce the same quality product. (We all know that by now.)
2. That doesn't get them buying power that higher quantity purchasers get. (I rarely pay list price)
All you are worried about is being cut from being a necessary middle man to small guys for pre-pigmented wrap vinyl
OR allowing more competition in the field of Vehicle wraps.
Welcome to American Capitalism!!!!!!
It doesn't pick and choose who gets to benefit from it.
Perhaps they will actually do smaller orders to MANY MORE customers.
That's EXACTLY what the Large Format Printing Manufacturers have done over the past few decades. To our benefit.

 

[CanuckSigns]

I'll help you understand the business model.
Fellers doesn't want to mess with smaller orders to fewer customers...TRUE.
That's why they created Cheetah Wraps, which is SET UP to handle FEW products to smaller customers. They don't need forklifts and 4 acre properties to do that.
They are getting new customers that used to either order crap vinyl from china on ebay or come begging to bigger shops to order it for them while paying that bigger shop to be the middle man. They can now spend their money on higher quality materials with confidence and hopefully not give the wrap biz a bad reputation.

Fellers still makes money by serving the wrap community without throwing a wrench in their larger warehouse machines.
If all these rants are because there is a fear that customers could get raw materials at the same place & price that we do...you are missing some key factors.
1. That doesn't mean they can produce the same quality product. (We all know that by now.)
2. That doesn't get them buying power that higher quantity purchasers get. (I rarely pay list price)
All you are worried about is being cut from being a necessary middle man to small guys for pre-pigmented wrap vinyl
OR allowing more competition in the field of Vehicle wraps.
Welcome to American Capitalism!!!!!!
It doesn't pick and choose who gets to benefit from it.
Perhaps they will actually do smaller orders to MANY MORE customers.
That's EXACTLY what the Large Format Printing Manufacturers have done over the past few decades. To our benefit.

Hey, end of the day this will not affect me one bit, I'm in a different country, and I don't offer wraps as a service. Just confused by the business model.

 

[klingsdesigns]

Well here it starts. Just got a customer that shot me a text of cheetah's catalog in the mail.

 

[reQ]

Well here it starts. Just got a customer that shot me a text of cheetah's catalog in the mail.

And its just a start yup. I have from time to time, people asking me why it cost so much to tint a car? They tell me they can buy the film @ 20 bucks in canadian tire and bring it to me to tint for 100 bucks
All the time explaining that canadian tire brand films are not good etc etc etc plus i will never work with film supplied by a customer.
To many ppl think that biggest portion in the price tag is material, which is huge mistake.

 

[HulkSmash]

Fellers is a joke. I've over the whole thing really. It just makes me a little upset they're selling to customer cheaper they sell to us.

And for those who think you can't call Cheetah wraps, and ask for digital film. Think again.

 

[joshGN]

(rant on)

Sooooo....I called Fellers yesterday to order some 3m 1080 Carbon Fiber. 1st Mistake...

Told the salesperson I wanted to price match Cheetahwraps price. After 10 mins of being on hold, she said couldnt match my 'special' pricing from Cheetahwraps.

I told her there was nothing special about the pricing, its the pricing on the website and how can she not price match her own company? She told me this is Fellers, not cheetahwrap...

I got irritated and told her Id just order it from Grimco...and she replied Ok and hung up.

(rant off)

I'd really like to be able to call someone at Fellers and tell them how their IDGAF attitude is killing their business, but I'd have to find someone that cared first...

 

[ProWraps]

cheetah wraps is most deffinately fellers. even says so right on the website.

cheetah is franks personal vendetta against metro restyling. metro has a significant market share of the color change film industry sales and he is pissed about that.

he also doesnt like metro so he created cheetah wraps to complete directly with metro.

sucks for sign shops like us and many others that entered into a good faith wholesale/retail relationship with fellers as this trashes that entire foundation of trust.

i raised this issue with my reps both local and regional and they are not happy about it either as it makes them look bad and they have nothing to do with it. but, it is what it is. i dont really care cause we do zero consumer and color change work.

but theres the story. now you know why it exists.

 

[Zac]

Found this thread after my phone call with Fellers. They won't even acknowledge CheetahWrap exists. With Grimco about to be carrying Orafol products, I will not be placing another order with Fellers. And we did a ton of business with them.

What a joke this guy is. Losing 10's of thousands of dollars a year (just from one shop) and all he'd have to do is price match his own prices.

 

[Zac]

Found this thread after my phone call with Fellers. They won't even acknowledge CheetahWrap exists. With Grimco about to be carrying Orafol products, I will not be placing another order with Fellers. And we did a ton of business with them.

What a joke this guy is. Losing 10's of thousands of dollars a year (just from one shop) and all he'd have to do is price match his own prices.

Update: If anyone else wants to make the jump, I contacted my sales rep at Grimco and they price matched CheetahWrap.