Thanks for taking the time out to share your experiences, @mumanddad,
As a Reece shareholder, I'm not sure that I am overly happy to learn that Reece is perceived by its trade customers to be constantly ratcheting up the price lever.
One thing I can't reconcile however, and I'm not for a minute saying that your observations are of the mark, is that this "Reece creep" on pricing is not translating into improved financial performance, given that the company's Gross Profit Margin has remained relatively unchanged in recent years, at around 32/33%.
Which means that they are not necessarily gouging customers, but merely keeping pace with the rising costs of sourcing their products.
And if Reece - the industry leader that theoretically enjoys both superior purchasing scale and pricing power - are experiencing CoGS inflation, and yet are only just able to recover those CoGS increases, then I shudder to think what the GP Margin experience must be like for Reece's competitors.
REH Price at posting:
$10.86 Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)
