A couple of things I've picked up on when talking to Steve Tomberlin at Air-Way (in addition to surprise when he answers the phone himself, instead of a receptionist): Steve doesn't totally own the company. He mentioned to me that Dr. Joyce Brothers, the well known TV psychologist, is a major stockholder. The purple shells will eventually be used up, and no more will be made in that color. Air-Way doesn't do their own painting of the housings. It is less costly for them to "Piggy back" on the job of another client of the company who paints the shells for them. That's why the black and white colors - they can always find someone who is having their parts painted in these colors. To do the purple shells they have to pay the painting people a charge, I think I was told $300, to clean out the paint guns and change over the color, and then change back.
I noticed Morgan said something about how Air-Way could be a viable, reasonably priced vacuum, if promoted. Actually one of the big objections a number of vac shops have to Air-Way is their high cost. To the best of my knowledge, an Air-Way (Sanitizor, not the Sani-Clean models) is more costly than other vacuums intended for vac shop sales. In fact their wholesale cost from the factory to their direct dealer, such as Charlie W. or myself, is right up there with what Rainbow and Kirby distributors pay for their machines. The difference in the retail cost is that the Air-Way is sold to the vac shop, who sells it to the consumer. The direct sales brands are sold to the distributor, then possibly to a sub-distributor, and the salesman, trainer, telephone people, etc. each receive some type of commission on each sale. But the Air-Way presents the opportunity for the vac shop to sell a cleaner of the same or better quality than the door-to-door guys.
I noticed Morgan said something about how Air-Way could be a viable, reasonably priced vacuum, if promoted. Actually one of the big objections a number of vac shops have to Air-Way is their high cost. To the best of my knowledge, an Air-Way (Sanitizor, not the Sani-Clean models) is more costly than other vacuums intended for vac shop sales. In fact their wholesale cost from the factory to their direct dealer, such as Charlie W. or myself, is right up there with what Rainbow and Kirby distributors pay for their machines. The difference in the retail cost is that the Air-Way is sold to the vac shop, who sells it to the consumer. The direct sales brands are sold to the distributor, then possibly to a sub-distributor, and the salesman, trainer, telephone people, etc. each receive some type of commission on each sale. But the Air-Way presents the opportunity for the vac shop to sell a cleaner of the same or better quality than the door-to-door guys.
