No more DOT trailers

[Paddler Ed]

After reading this at the start of the weekend, I've been thinking about it a bit more.

I work for a company that does manufacture here in Australia, so I know a few of the challenges facing them and other manufacturers

• Wages. Yes, wages are high in Australia, but somewhere like Gloucester has a number of challenges that are on top of that:
Tree changers out of Sydney who want an acreage property or somehwere bijou. This pushes up property prices for the staff who might not be on that crash hot wage - but would have been enough to have bought a 5/10 acre block in the past.... therefore they ask for a bit of a pay rise to get them back on the ladder...
So what do those lads go to do? They'll head off to work in the Hunter in the mines at daft rates of pay - how do you pull someone back from that wage when they know to be able to buy somewhere that they aspire to isn't possible if they don't?

• Limited export opportunities
Much of the Federal and State support is geared around the ability to export - unfortunately, for many of Drifta's products that's not cost effective.

• Modernisation:
Drifta have been pretty good at adopting CAD etc to make their stuff, so that really limits their ability to build in a more efficient way.

• Actually building a product that is too good
If you build something too good, people don't change them - and if it's too similar it doesn't need replacing to show that you have the newest and shiniest thing going....

[McGirr]

I have found their prices have become way too expensive. Their canvas gear is incredibly expensive, yes it is good gear but it’s a drifta product and not the European brand names you find in fashion boutiques.

Mark

[PWE]

It was clear in his last clip that he was down.
He mention a couple of times that it is difficult to manufacture in Australia.
Would love to know what his view is.
Being following his YouTube channel over the last couple of years, but stop viewing every clip since they started with the walk up trailer option. They lost me there, to many ‘luxury’ options.