Typical builder's margin for electric fittings?

[Peter Boulton]

Hi,

Does anyone have a feel for the typical profit margin a builder / electrician would add for, say, light fittings?

I'm not talking cost of fitting - just the actual physical doo-daa they buy from the electrical wholesalers.

If I said I've discovered I've been charged 100% on top of the cost I could buy they from off the electrical wholesaler a couple of miles down the road and which I know the builder got them from, would you be shocked, or is this kind of margin typical?

I don't mind paying extra, by the way, for the convenience of single-sourcing and I understand that builders have to live! However,

100% maybe seems a little excessive, but it could be that's typical, hence this posting.

Thanks!

Pete

[Phil L]

Are you sure he didn't need to purchase extra cabling? junction boxes? connectors? or maybe he used some of his own stuff which he already had in the van

[A.Lee]

100% sounds quite a lot, but, what price were you charged? I know typical pendant fittings can be had for £1 or so, yet a customer woudlnt complain if they were charged £5. I tend to supply parts at cost price or just a little over myself, if people charge me a lot more than the true value then I wouldnt be too happy, especially if they are already making a decent wage on the labour charge. Alan.

[Rod]

Do you have a contract with your builder? Was it prepared according to some standard form such as RICS or similar sell? If so, it might well contain a clause covering the issue.

[The Medway Handyman]

You could of course have tied up your money, time & transport in buying them yourself.

I suppose it depends on the item & what you can buy it for. I buy flexible tap connectors & service valves from Screwfix at £1.29 & £0.75 each. I charge them out at £3.99 & £2.99 each, because thats less than they charge in B&Q or Homebase. More than 100%, but not a large amount of money.

I tend to use Homebase prices as my selling price because they are easily the most expensive.

If the amount was £20 & the builder charged £40 thats entirely different from £200 & £400 IMO.

In days of yore a 'trade' buyer got around 40% off & sold at list price. Thats 66% mark up.

[cj]

Hi You say you know the wholesaler but many wholesalers stock 5 or more brands of the same thing ,take a ceiling rose in white a foreign import may sell for £1.00 each as a box of 10 whilst MK can be as much as £3.00 per unit again sold in 10's . If you were sold the identical unit with a 100% mark up it is a bit extreme unless as TMH points out the item costs a few pounds and may cost £5 or £6 to source and collect.

CJ

[tim.....]

Oh, doesn't that happen anymore?

Which bit's missing I wonder? The discount, the mark(back)-up or the tradesman :-)

tim

[The Medway Handyman]

Its yer changing retail market innit.

Howdens still operate a 'trade only' system and give discounts off list, but their net prices are no cheaper than B&Q or Wickes really.

Its hard to mark up some products nowadays, clients can go online or instore to look at how much fence panels, bathroom suites, sinks, taps etc are. In fact I get many calls from people who have bought them & simply want them fitted.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

What was the agreement you entered into with the builder?

[John Rumm]

Much depends on the circumstance I would say. Its also a little unfair to compare the price with a wholesaler - you ought to compare against retail - especially if you are only talking about small quantities.

Generally speaking if I am selling on small quantities of basic fittings I will sell them at something approaching "normal" retail price[1]. My logic being that the customer is getting a deal no worse than if they went out to a typical shop to buy the stuff. That may well mean that on some things which I have sourced from more trade focussed suppliers (even if not exclusively trade (e.g. screwfix, tlc, cpc etc)) I am making several hundred percent. However as a proportion of the whole bill its probably a small amount, and it seems justifiable to compensating for the time and resources used procuring it.

For a larger job (house rewire, or a structured cableling system or something like that), then I would be more inclined to apply a lower blanket markup to the total value.

[1] Although I don't have the heart to take it to the PC world extreme of flogging USB leads or patch leads at £15 - £25 a pop!

[ARWadworth]

You need to stick a margin of 20-25% on your basic parts. This should cover your time and costs in buying them and is your insuance if the part is faulty.

Adam