From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Financial implications and sales strategy for grouped instrument schemes versus individual instruments.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 15\7\ Scan056 | |
| Date | 28th November 1927 | |
| To R.{Sir Henry Royce} from BJ. This loss of £3185 per annum is based on the possibility of our being able to sell the speedometer and clock separately, but on consideration it will be seen that we could hardly sell a grouped instrument scheme with holes in it for speedometer and clock, but must supply these instruments with the whole scheme. 2. Therefore, we should have to add the cost of these two instruments and this would make the extra cost of this final scheme on 500 chassis..................................................£8,585 per annum. 3. Now, if we also have a grouped scheme on the 20 HP it would be approximately double this figure, say....................£17,000 per annum. 4. In addition to this we should lose the profit we are now making in selling speedometers and clocks, which last year amounted to £1500. This would bring our total loss to.....................£18,730 per annum. I am confident that under these circumstances you will agree with us that it is far better for us to continue to sell our cars with the instruments as they are now standard. In these days we seem to receive no requests from agents or customers for a grouped scheme, and provided the instruments on our scuttle are all the same and to look at, we feel confident that we shall receive no complaints. Under the circumstances we propose not to show grouped instruments on any of our cars but, in the event of customers specially pressing for grouped instruments, we shall have 6 sets ready to supply at extra cost in such special cases . Our great object, therefore, should be not to let these grouped instruments be seen on any of our own cars as it would raise a rumour that we were about to introduce them, and people would think when they bought a car from us that we were doing them out of some new thing which we were about to introduce if the grouped instruments were not supplied with their chassis. BJ | ||