Scotsman Reveals Ice Market Research Findings
Reliability more important than ever, say dealers
Scotsman has released part of a confidential market research report looking at the ice machine market in the UK. The company believes it to be the first such survey into the market, and one of the surprising results is that dealers are now ranking reliability as equally important to price when it comes to choosing a brand. Previously price was considered to be the overriding factor, with reliability second.
A spokesman commented that the project was designed to give Scotsman, and the brand's UK distributor Hubbard Ice Systems, a better understanding of the issues faced by dealers and their customers. "The market is relatively soft at the moment, so it's more important than ever to know what makes customers tick," says Chris Davis, Hubbards Commercial Director.
"Facts and figures covering the whole ice machine market are almost non-existent: the Scotsman research fills in some of the gaps," he adds.
In order to give as accurate as possible a snapshot of the market, researchers interviewed a cross-section of distributors, half of whom supplied Scotsman machines, the remainder selling competitive brands. The full report is being kept under wraps, but Scotsman was happy to reveal some of the key findings.
Price and reliability were now equally important in terms of buying decisions, both well ahead of other considerations, such as warranty. However, many respondents commented on the number of cheap imports in the market - Scotsman believes the breakdown rates on these may well have increased the profile of the reliability issue.
The reliability finding is particularly gratifying for Scotsman since the brand's machines rated very highly with all respondents, whether they sold them or not. In fact, 57% marked the brand as 'very good' or 'excellent'. One existing dealer went as far as to comment, "I would sell Scotsman all the time, their back-up is brilliant. They are good quality and you get what you pay for."
Other findings included confirmation that small is beautiful: the most popular size/capacity of machine is 20kg. Amongst Scotsman dealers, the best selling ice machines are those that make Supercubes (the familiar 'gourmet' thimble-shaped cubes). Perhaps surprisingly, flake ice machines came second, ahead of ice dispensers (3rd) and square (dice) cubes in fourth.
