THE M-14 SEMI AUTO;
I am going from memory here, I would have to check the files for exact dates etc....
Some years ago we were approached by Norinco to sell their product line of firearms here in Canada, they said they were not happy with the sales vaolume at that time....You must remember that the M-14 and the AR-15 clones, just to mention a couple, were being sold for hundreds of dollars higher than even today's prices.
We met with some of the administration of Norinco on several occasiosn to discuss what we wanted and what they expected, we met here, in China, in Nuremberg (IWA) and at SHOT.
We reached an agreement with Norinco several months later, we needed many issues made clear before we signed on, the most important being how we would extend our warranty policy to cover Norinco firearms.... Another part of the agreement covered the training of our gunsmith at the various factories in China.
Once we introduced the Norinco firearms to the Canadian market and the consumer took note of our much lower pricing than what was being offered in Canada at that time by other importers.... A couple of things happened;
1) All hell broke loose and we received threatning calls from dealers, other calls were more suttle, like "can't you bring up your prices so we can all make more" ? Funny the consumer found that they liked our prices....
2) Sales soared, within the first three months of having product in our warehouse we sold more than all other importers combined for the previous year....
It was not alwys a smooth road, we had issues, we always resolved them with the hlp of the people in China.... They either came over or we went there....
At times there were production and QC issues, I'm certain most of our customers will agree that the overall fit and finish has come a long way since we began importing. We managed to always try and prevent any potential issues, somtimes causing delivery delays, but since we do warranty everything is it easier to fix minor things before they become a major problem, thats why Frank, our gunsmith, is in the factories on a regular basis....
Many of our happy customers ask how we can maintain lower pricing that many others who import from China, it is simple, we buy in volume directly from the factories, we are the importer, we are the vendor, we sell directly to you the retail customer and to many dealers all over Canada....
You must also realize that some importers are simply not happy with a modest profit margin and want more of your hard earned money, if the market supports that, fine it is a free market system in Canada....
I hope we have replied to some of your questions, if you have others ask ....
John
