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Can anyone shed some light as to why (apparently) still no one can compete with YKK in terms of scale and value for money?

by cJ0th 10y ago

foota 10y ago
I don't know anything about YKK in particular, but a company that has large economies of scale can operate at a lower cost than a new firm could, allowing them to continue to dominate the market. edit: this doesn't seem to be the case here after reading the article, because it states YKK zippers are generally more expensive.
- vertex-four 10y ago
  It is possible that their zippers do cost less than if their competitors attempted to make zippers of similar quality - i.e. that their competitors can't make profit on quality zippers due to not having the same economies of scale.
  - rasz_pl 10y ago
    That never stopped china.
tixocloud 10y ago
The zipper is a component. If the component works as functioned, there's little reason why you would risk trying someone new. For new companies to figure how to perfect the component takes time. They could probably try to innovate the zipper but that depends on whether designers would be willing to pick up on it. Even then, it would probably cost a lot of money to set the process up and mass produce those new, untested zippers. The risk/reward is just not favourable to an investor. For competitors, producing the perfect zipper is one thing but maintaining supply whenever is needed is another issue. Your logistics have to be in place. And then there's also the relationship. Reliability counts when it comes to being a supplier.
ghaff 10y ago
I used to be a product manager in the systems business when a lot of even smallish companies were still buying proprietary systems of one sort or another, I was constantly surprised by the number of customers who came through who had 80% share of US toilet seats (or whatever). The dynamic has probably changed somewhat with globalization. But, as others have said, it someone really has a stranglehold on some unsexy, low margin, low unit dollar component business, it's hard to get excited about unseating that 800# gorilla.
dublinben 10y ago
There is at least one other large zipper manufacturer (Ideal) who competes in many of the same markets as YKK. If you start checking your clothing, you'll see it quite a bit.

Can anyone shed some light as to why (apparently) still no one can compete with YKK in terms of scale and value for money?

by cJ0th 10y ago

Can anyone shed some light as to why (apparently) still no one can compete with YKK in terms of scale and value for money?

foota 10y ago

I don't know anything about YKK in particular, but a company that has large economies of scale can operate at a lower cost than a new firm could, allowing them to continue to dominate the market. edit: this doesn't seem to be the case here after reading the article, because it states YKK zippers are generally more expensive.

vertex-four 10y ago
It is possible that their zippers do cost less than if their competitors attempted to make zippers of similar quality - i.e. that their competitors can't make profit on quality zippers due to not having the same economies of scale.
- rasz_pl 10y ago
  That never stopped china.

tixocloud 10y ago

The zipper is a component. If the component works as functioned, there's little reason why you would risk trying someone new. For new companies to figure how to perfect the component takes time. They could probably try to innovate the zipper but that depends on whether designers would be willing to pick up on it. Even then, it would probably cost a lot of money to set the process up and mass produce those new, untested zippers. The risk/reward is just not favourable to an investor. For competitors, producing the perfect zipper is one thing but maintaining supply whenever is needed is another issue. Your logistics have to be in place. And then there's also the relationship. Reliability counts when it comes to being a supplier.

ghaff 10y ago

I used to be a product manager in the systems business when a lot of even smallish companies were still buying proprietary systems of one sort or another, I was constantly surprised by the number of customers who came through who had 80% share of US toilet seats (or whatever). The dynamic has probably changed somewhat with globalization. But, as others have said, it someone really has a stranglehold on some unsexy, low margin, low unit dollar component business, it's hard to get excited about unseating that 800# gorilla.

dublinben 10y ago

There is at least one other large zipper manufacturer (Ideal) who competes in many of the same markets as YKK. If you start checking your clothing, you'll see it quite a bit.