UK ICS Deal!

Posted by Unknown On Thursday, August 01, 2013

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UK ICS DEAL!
ICS deal with the Devil?
or good for UK Airsoft?


By now you’re sure to have seen the news that FireSupport are the sole ICS distributor for Britain and Northern Ireland! Is this good or bad news for UK Airsofters, and what will it mean?

ICS have always had a good reputation in the market for supplying great mid-range AEG’s and accessories. Will this new move by them make sense? From their point of view dealing with ONE main UK distributor makes the logistics and dealings from a business pov much simpler and other UK retailers don’t have to worry about shipping, lead times, customs/duty etc.

Having a SINGLE POINT of contact can have so many benefits for consumers, like product support, repairs, not to mention a consistent level of service. That’s the least we should expect from this major ICS deal.
HOWEVER why do I bristle at this news when I hear it? (and maybe you should to?):

  • Firesupport will CONTROL ICS products in the entire UK market space – controlling release, price and parts supply.
  • Being a retailer themselves they will be in a position to dictate other retailer’s prices and offer the cheapest prices themselves. This effectively controls the market and the price point so reducing potential competitive pricing policies & competition.
  • Less choice in your local/favourite airsoft shop! – Remember a single point of contact (Firesupport) can also be a potential single point of failure as well!
  • Grey imports may increase, with potentially unsupported or not to UK spec products entering the market place.
  • This potentially leaves us at the mercy of a single retailer for ICS products unless we resort to grey imports or foreign websites.

I cannot help but feel that ICS have dropped a major clanger in the UK market place on this deal and will turn many people away from their otherwise great range of products – I do hope ICS have a major rethink on this – if they wanted a single point of contact in the UK they could have chosen a much better retailer to go for!

Time will no doubt tell on this issue! What are your thoughts on the issue?

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3 comments

  1. Anonymous Said,

    I am hearing more players are buying guns from china more and more everyday and then having to downgrade the internals to meet the stricter requirements here in Northern Ireland or even worse having their purchases held in customs. Although my experience with my local shop has good dealings with Firesupport it does mean that Firesupport will be able to dictate price and availability of ICS products in their favour and this could spark the end of the ICS trade in the UK in my opinion.

    Posted on August 1, 2013 at 8:12 PM

     
  2. Anonymous Said,

    Balls, Landwarrior have Scottish rights apparently, contact John Reddington of Elite, he'll tell you of his deal, there's a thread on Arnies regarding this issue, You could have an exclusive deal with ICS no doubt, every other bugger can get one :p

    Posted on August 2, 2013 at 1:41 AM

     
  3. Unknown Said,

    it was FS's own news - glad to hear they DONT have exclusivity - be sad for UK airsoft if they did.

    Posted on August 2, 2013 at 8:36 PM

     

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