Thursday 28 February 2013

OUCE255 - Pricing Strategy

I have selected three similar products to my chosen piece, which is a garden bench. I will take these prices and designs into consideration before choosing my own pricing strategy for the piece.

bespoke garden seating
Makers: The Toulouse Garden Bench - £1950

Teak Garden Bench - York (Blenheim)
Sustainable Furniture: Teak Garden Bench - £280

Marlborough Teak Garden Bench
Bracken Style Furniture: Marlborough Bench - £300 
I have broken down the costs into subsections, so it is easier to work out how much I would have to sell it for:

The total time of production was around 64 hours, which when working to £30 per hour, is £1920. This already seems like a huge amount of money compared to the other three pieces.

The cost of materials was the lowest expenditure  mainly due to the choice of using tanalised timber. In total, with one spare board at a total of £105, including all the fixtures and glue required to complete the build. To make some of the jigs I used scrap MDF which I haven't added into my costings, but may not be available in my own workshop, and may increase the price a little.

I also have calculated the cost of all the machinery that I used, I have included a list of the machines below:


  • Dimension Saw
  • Surface Planer
  • Thicknesser
  • Mortiser
  • Tenoner
  • Laser Cutter
  • Bandsaw
  • Disc Sander
  • Bobbin Sander
In total the basic machinery would cost nearly £10,000. This does not include taxes, workshop bills or transport costs. 


Due to the requirements of a specific client, it was initially designed to be a bespoke piece, although it could quite easily be mass produced if required, as it was mostly machine produced. This could have a big impact on the total price, as it could be made much quicker then I made it for the first time.

In total just the cost of the bench would be £12,025, a huge difference compared to the three existing products. To be viable in the current market it would have to be priced at around £2500 - £3000, and this is called competitive pricing.