dmward wrote in post #18306541
All I can say is the EU has managed to get things seriously messed up from a regulatory, tariff, and tax perspective when importing products. Especially if there is a company in the EU manufacturing a competitive product.
Aside from the bureaucracy you can probably thank Hensel and Elinchrom as well.
As for the Cheetah Stand model. Even if there were someone wanting to get into the business. The hoops they would have to jump through, along with the fees, add-on costs, etc. would probably bring the price up to about the same level. I know it did for our products. We tried it.
Very true! Since that time, our bureaucrats have worked assiduously nay tirelessly to foul things up to an even greater extent. A great success story all round.
And, of course, protectionism plays it's part too - if you should for some reason want to buy a Chinese-made bicycle in the UK there's a 45% import duty (plus 20% VAT) to pay.
jlafferty wrote in post #18306495
I get that we'd all rather be out taking pictures but... what's stopping some enterprising Brit from being the UK equivalent of Cheetah? Importing, rebranding and sellings goods manufactured in China subjected to the same problematic duties/insurance/taxes? Has anyone compared the figures of doing so against other options?
And since I'm asking... if the internet seems (to me) to be dominated by reverence for Alien Bees for years, and suddenly they're being replaced by Godox/Flashpoint, neither of which seem readily available and supported in the UK... what've y'all been shooting with all this time?

:/
Language! For some unfathomable reason, there seems to be a Pan-European relectance on the part of some to buy Product A from Country B when often the only difference is the language on the website. Perhaps these folks lack the mental agility to use translation software or perhaps it's a mistrust of "Johnny Forgeigner" engendered by centuries of war. Dunno. I'll happily work with suppliers in Poland, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Italy, Greece & Portugal (plus China, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore & occasionally Japan) on a regular basis but many simply won't do that for some reason. This means that (for example) a UK supplier of Godox (Lencarta)
have a much more limited target market while Walser Gmbh
service Germany with exactly the same products apart from the white paint on the side.
Alien Bees never achieved much market penetration this side of The Pond because of the aforementioned bureaucracy ...... and your wierd US voltage, out of line with the rest of the world
. The 'reverence' for Alien Bees on the internet was/is nothing more than folks shouting about them more than other brands. Oh, and they end up ridiculously pricey for their quality/specification over here.
AnnieMacD wrote in post #18307230
I just looked on the site and they have all the new Godox stuff in including the AD200. It looks like they are not rebranding the new generation of products. But I'm sure they will be offering warranties and support. They seem to be branching out with lots of goodies - must have a good look!
Lencarta are in the old rock/hard place zone regarding the breadth of their offerings. Excellent service (but then, they're only just up the road from me so I might be biased locally) and what they do offer is good. HOWEVER, they also have a disquieting tendency to rush to print/webpage without fully proof-reading what they are saying so beware the technical specifications they quote. Info might be right ...... then again, it might not. Occasionally, illustrations don't marry with the product being described either. Doesn't detract from the product, just the veracity of their advertising on occasion.