What's being said is that RK buys direct from the factory in korea, imports them to the USA and deal with all that paperwork, etc.
I doubt it...but I don't know for sure (and google wont say much other than the RK company line).
Almost all companies have an american company - toyota USA, honda USA, etc. Is that a middle man? Or just an office that takes dealer orders and handles the import paperwork and shipping? TODAY those 'middlemen' also run factories and more, often offering financing, etc.
How much do they add to the cost? Can't say - BUT - if RK is importing from TYM directly SOMEONE still has to arrange shipping, import, distribution, etc. So if it takes tym USA 10 people it likely takes RK 8 people say, since they don't need a separate ceo or payroll person. Not sure it saves a lot of costs though.
There are SO many details that we don't know, can't know, that we DON'T know.
We've all heard of 'dealer invoice' - what a bunch of marketing malarkey that is. In theory all dealers pay the same- IN THEORY - but there are incentives and other programs.
For instance - (and it varies by manufacturer how this woeks, but I've seen all these 'tools') - buy X amount and get free flooring (no financing fee on your inventory), buy some slow moving models and we'll give you the ability to buy a hot moving model, marketing money (to help pay for ads/mailings), use teh manufacturer financing and the dealer gets a cut of it, if you agree to NOT return unsold models you can get better pricing/deals, the more units you move the better the deal/pricing/incentives you get. IN addition to 'package' deals that they do all the time "we're gonna make 5,000 units equipped as X at a special deal IF you take 100 of them!" etc, etc.
RK likely skips all those games - they don't need to get dealers to buy them,move them, etc. I assume RK stores are all corporate, no franchisees, they don't pay commissions to salesman, finance people, etc.
Big deal -- then Kubota could be saying they have one less middle man too since they make their own tractors and they don't have another company in the loop. And there are tractor companies like Deere that manufacture some of their tractors and sub-out manufacture of other tractors. Should they say some models cut out a middle man but other models add a middle man? I just think it's an arbitrary and pointless description when there is obviously someone in the middle no matter what.
Kubota -> Dealer -> Customer
Deere -> Dealer -> Customer
Yanmar -> Deere -> Dealer -> Customer
TYM -> RK -> Customer
TYM -> Cabelas -> Customer
Jinma -> Nortrac (Northern Tool) -> Customer
And so on...
Unless a product is sold factory direct to the customer, somebody is always in the middle. Doesn't matter if it's a dealer, an importer, a retail chain with a house brand, etc. There is nothing wrong with any of these business models, but none of them are direct to the customer.
If I was RK I would be playing up the fact that they are a national retail chain and they have a lot of stores that will sell tractors and support the customer. There is a middle man and there is a good reason for it. The middle man is a national retail chain and not some independent dealer. The middle man adds value in a way that the manufacturer cannot. Don't pretend there is no middle man.
