Maxspect Will Now be Distributed Exclusively by Aperture in North America

[Jon's Reef]

BRS/ Aperture will not be setting the price. They will have some input, but MAP pricing is set be the Manufacturer. This is not like the Neptune, Ecotech and BRS purchases/ investments.

up until now, Coralvue was the distributor. This means that they would import Maxspect stuff. They then sold direct to consumer, but also sold to other stores… both LFS and online. They also operate as the main point of contact for warranty and service.

Another example… NYOS. Their stuff is sold by many retailers, but Ecotech is the US distributor.

Why the change? It could be that aperture is leveraging their scale to offer a better terms to Maxspect (higher internal transfer price, lower freight prices, different inventory management, etc)

 

[Reefluencer]

We won't tell the Justice Department about your clever monopoly scheme IF you'll give us a Gyre with no wire in the tank.

Thanks, Aperture!

 

[rtparty]

These are two very well thought out replies that spell out why this is bad. Take this in connection with MAP pricing and we can expect the recently inflation in our hobby (both pre and post covid inflation) to be our path forward. Upwards and onwards [goes the pricing]!

So people really think Aperture is going to cut out other vendors, try to sell everything under BRS, raise prices in the process, and do all this while sales are in the toilet and people are leaving the hobby left and right?

I got some awesome beach front property in Arizona for a lot of ya

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

So people really think Aperture is going to cut out other vendors, try to sell everything under BRS, raise prices in the process, and do all this while sales are in the toilet and people are leaving the hobby left and right?

I got some awesome beach front property in Arizona for a lot of ya

I dont think that is the issue that maniacally. Just the natural tendencies of this will be. How much inventory can one company carry and push. How much pricing power do they give to a BRS vs a smaller shop. These are the things that will naturally reduce the distribution and push up prices.

 

[ChiCity]

I got some awesome beach front property in Arizona for a lot of ya

(“learn to swim, see you down in arizona bay….”)

 

[JeffB418]

So people really think Aperture is going to cut out other vendors, try to sell everything under BRS, raise prices in the process, and do all this while sales are in the toilet and people are leaving the hobby left and right?

I got some awesome beach front property in Arizona for a lot of ya

I think all decisions from here on out are purely made for profit reasons. Apeture is owned by an investment company, and their goal is to make the most amount of money for their investors (ROI), plain and simple. So by pulling as many companies under their umbrella (either ownership or exclusivity), they are making sure they are getting the biggest piece of the pie with products they sell. That's the main reason they are pulling more brands in. It would be a different story if they were bringing in new brands not in the US yet, but AF and MS were both established US brands. That being said, they make the most from in house brands (ETM, NS, etc), so naturally their goal is to prioritize those brands the most. Also alot of maxspect products overlap with house brands (LED fixtures, return pumps mainly), so if sales are that down and the hobby really is shrinking as you say, its not out of the realm of possibility for Apeture to incentivize house brands over Maxspect products since they now control the distribution of the products at the US source. So examples of indirect influence could be: offering better sales for house brands over exclusive brands, offering better wholesale pricing, and marketing choices. This move of getting Maxspect gives them more control overall.

I am not saying that this is what they will do, but if it comes down to sinking sales overall... apeture will make decisions that help the bottom line, because that's what businesses do.

 

[Antics]

On top of what has already been said — exclusivity at the distribution level can cause issues with LFS and how they order and carry stock. It’s a lot of effort to break this down for someone that is basically dismissive of the issue entirely (with no benefit) so I will refrain. But it’s not a good thing when one company begins to try and own or control the distribution of the majority of well known / MAP items in an industry.

 

[areefer01]

(“learn to swim, see you down in arizona bay….”)

I see what you did there....great song btw.

 

[rtparty]

I think all decisions from here on out are purely made for profit reasons. Apeture is owned by an investment company, and their goal is to make the most amount of money for their investors (ROI), plain and simple. So by pulling as many companies under their umbrella (either ownership or exclusivity), they are making sure they are getting the biggest piece of the pie with products they sell. That's the main reason they are pulling more brands in. It would be a different story if they were bringing in new brands not in the US yet, but AF and MS were both established US brands. That being said, they make the most from in house brands (ETM, NS, etc), so naturally their goal is to prioritize those brands the most. Also alot of maxspect products overlap with house brands (LED fixtures, return pumps mainly), so if sales are that down and the hobby really is shrinking as you say, its not out of the realm of possibility for Apeture to incentivize house brands over Maxspect products since they now control the distribution of the products at the US source. So examples of indirect influence could be: offering better sales for house brands over exclusive brands, offering better wholesale pricing, and marketing choices. This move of getting Maxspect gives them more control overall.

I am not saying that this is what they will do, but if it comes down to sinking sales overall... apeture will make decisions that help the bottom line, because that's what businesses do.

Maxspect brings products that no other Aperture company offers. Affordable return pumps, mid range LEDs (AI has moved into upper tier pricing lately), Gyre pumps, to name a few.

I'd also throw out there that Maxspect likely doesn't make this move so they can be controlled and put out of business while Aperture only pushes in house brands.

Pretty clear Maxspect wasn't too happy with CV if they were willing to completely move their entire line to a new distributor. Maybe some should be asking why Maxspect would do this if they were happy (making enough money) with CV.

I hope we see a bunch of cheap Maxspect in the FS forum shortly for those that want to stick to their guns and hate Aperture at all costs.

 

[Oldreefer44]

Having worked for and with companies like Bertram I can unequivically state that EVERYTHING that is done under their umbrella is based on increasing their ROI by increasing sales and/or cutting costs. From Maxspects point of view, they are probably making the move with the assumption that BRS will help them increase sales and thus profitability. Not judging just my experience.

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

Having worked for and with companies like Bertram I can unequivically state that EVERYTHING that is done under their umbrella is based on increasing their ROI by increasing sales and/or cutting costs. From Maxspects point of view, they are probably making the move with the assumption that BRS will help them increase sales and thus profitability. Not judging just my experience.

Please dont take this as a person attack, but I dont understand how "I can unequivically state that EVERYTHING that is done under their umbrella is based on increasing their ROI by increasing sales and/or cutting cost" is even something that people would doubt. It is a business. No one takes on risks or invest capital for the betterment of a for profit industry. People who seem to think people selling stuff in this industry is altruistic and that people dont have profit motives. If people think BRS is selling things cheaply because they 'you deserve cheaper goods', people are dillusional. About as intelligent as people complaining about the prices of highly sought after corals.

 

[Antics]

I think when you have a very forward facing PR/friendly company like BRS and to a lesser extent Neptune people want to assume that passion drives a lot of the decision making for the company. While everyone inherently understands and appreciates that companies are in business to make money and profits — it’s a fine line between that success and outright price gouging or market manipulation.

For me personally I generally don’t see any positives for the consumer with these acquisitions. Even with BRS being the largest online retailer and having these other companies under their umbrella there is not going to be any cost savings passed to the consumer — even though you would assume that with middlemen being cutout that would be the case, right? But instead we all know at best it will remain what it’s been in the past but most likely it will incrementally get worse.

 

[Mattiejay6]

So I wonder if exclusive distributor means places like saltwateraquarium are going to get short changed and not be given product to sell?

I love salt water aquarium.com but customer service wise.... they always sounds grumpy etc... leave alot to be desired

 

[amoore311]

They got a better deal from Aperture than Coralvue.

It’s just a distribution agreement that is all.

Hopefully I can get all my gyre parts from brs now instead of dealing with corlavue’s janky website.

Everyone on reef2reef turns into a dang anti-trust expert as soon as “Aperture” appears in a thread title.

 

[NowGlazeIT]

We won't tell the Justice Department about your clever monopoly scheme IF you'll give us a Gyre with no wire in the tank.

Thanks, Aperture!

Oh your good

 

[JeffB418]

Looks like the transition from Coralvue to BRS was last night. Maxspect wiped from Coralvue’s brand list. Also noticed they moved all remaining stock into their outlet store with huge discounts.

 

[Hydrored]

meh, I have my own opinions with Aperture but CV has hands down some of the worse customer service I have ever dealt with. There are certain brands I would never buy simply because I would have to deal with CV.

I’m of the opinion most get into this hobby without the true understanding of what it cost both financially and of your personal time. I guess I fall into the price is what it is just deal with it mentality, if you can’t afford it don’t get involved. Flame on

 

[Montiman]

There are several problems associated with Aperture becoming the exclusive distributor for a product line.

Consider other lines that BRS was the exclusive distributor of. Like Triton. When was the last time you saw a Triton product at an LFS. I never have. I have seen the ICP Analysis tests Coral Vue distributed as well as ATI ICP tests. In general, an LFS or online retailer is much more willing to purchase products from a true distributor, not a retailer pretending to be a distributor especially if they know the product is exclusively from this retailer.

Also, consider the pricing that other vendors receive. If another eCommerce seller was purchasing maxpect they may have been getting the same or better pricing than BRS. Coral Vue promoted competition because they didn't like all of their sales from one channel. Will BRS continue to offer this special pricing? and if they don't will other vendors continue to carry the product?

What about the distribution chain? Even though CoralVue was the exclusive US distributor many wholesalers across the country distribute Coral Vue products. Will they still be able to buy Maxpect at the same price? If they drop the line will local stores still sell Maxpect when they can't get it locally and instead have to buy from who they feel is their largest competitor?

What about CoralVue? They have to be pretty upset now that 2 product lines have been taken from them. What if they have had enough and stop selling their exclusive lines to BRS? Imagen a BRS with no Hydros, Octopus, Abyzz, or IceCap.

 

[JaimeAdams]

There are several problems associated with Aperture becoming the exclusive distributor for a product line.

Consider other lines that BRS was the exclusive distributor of. Like Triton. When was the last time you saw a Triton product at an LFS. I never have. I have seen the ICP Analysis tests Coral Vue distributed as well as ATI ICP tests. In general, an LFS or online retailer is much more willing to purchase products from a true distributor, not a retailer pretending to be a distributor especially if they know the product is exclusively from this retailer.

Also, consider the pricing that other vendors receive. If another eCommerce seller was purchasing maxpect they may have been getting the same or better pricing than BRS. Coral Vue promoted competition because they didn't like all of their sales from one channel. Will BRS continue to offer this special pricing? and if they don't will other vendors continue to carry the product?

What about the distribution chain? Even though CoralVue was the exclusive US distributor many wholesalers across the country distribute Coral Vue products. Will they still be able to buy Maxpect at the same price? If they drop the line will local stores still sell Maxpect when they can't get it locally and instead have to buy from who they feel is their largest competitor?

What about CoralVue? They have to be pretty upset now that 2 product lines have been taken from them. What if they have had enough and stop selling their exclusive lines to BRS? Imagen a BRS with no Hydros, Octopus, Abyzz, or IceCap.

I'm a Brick and Mortar Retail store and my problem that I am having with continuing to sell Maxspect products is the fact that I have several bad controllers and pumps that are within the warranty period that I was given when purchased from Coralvue, but am currently being told that there is nothing that they can do about it. I guess we will see at the end of it, but pretty ticked off at the moment with $2,000 in faulty pumps and pretty much being told to go buy new ones or go see what the new company who bought them out is going to do for me.

 

[JeffB418]

I'm a Brick and Mortar Retail store and my problem that I am having with continuing to sell Maxspect products is the fact that I have several bad controllers and pumps that are within the warranty period that I was given when purchased from Coralvue, but am currently being told that there is nothing that they can do about it. I guess we will see at the end of it, but pretty ticked off at the moment with $2,000 in faulty pumps and pretty much being told to go buy new ones or go see what the new company who bought them out is going to do for me.

Interested to hear how BRS has handled your warranty claims on these?