Bee suit prices - UK to Spain - £468 or €198...really?

[RichardK]

I was chatting to a fellow bee keeper (here in France) this week, and he made me aware of some of hte savings to be had when buying in Spain compared to France. Specifically we were talking about wax sheets. Being nosey this morning I had a look at bee suits and it looks like the same one here: BeePro – Khaki – *Fully Lined | BJ Sherriff @ £468 or here: Apiarist by BJ Sherriff Original ® - Traje profesional para apicultor @ €198.30. What do you think? Google Chrome automatically translates the Spanish for me....I guess your browser will do the same?

 

[Ian123]

Aren’t they 2 different suits.

 

[Apiarisnt]

Apples and oranges. I suspect the version sold by the Spanish importer probably corresponds to this,S36 Apiarist – Full suit | Product Categories | BJ Sherriff but the importer has been lazy and used the wrong illustrations.

Nevertheless it is still cheaper there than here. I have seem the same issue elsewhere. I buy (too much) stuff from Axminster Tools who are trying hard these days to price themselves out of the market, having sold too much to idle hands during the lockdown. A couple of the items I 'need' are £90 and £95 direct from Axminster, but out of stock. The same items are available in Sweden for SKR 650 (around £55) each. Fortunately my son is currently resident in Sweden...

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Aren’t they 2 different suits.

totally different - the beepro is double lined and made to measure/order. The Apiarist is their bog standard off the peg offering.

 

[pargyle]

Aren’t they 2 different suits.

I think the UK one is their made to measure .. the standard Apiarist suit is about £240 in the UK - still appears to be a bit more expensive than in Spain - perhaps our 20% VAT which is included in our price - Some agricultural products in Spain have a reduced VAT level of 4% ?

 

[RichardK]

Glad to hear it's not the same thing - that would have been a stupid price difference. The wax sheets that I went to the site for are €59 vs €109 for 5kg. This gives me c. 45 sheets of Dadant brood frames (26 * 41). Looking at Thornes, this would be £80 / €94 for the same quantity.