Market research brick wall

[skip in my dreams]

Hi all,

I seem to have hit a brick wall in my market research into the demographic of people who hire skips.

Also, I have been unable to find data on the amount of skips hired in the medway/Kent area in a given period, I have found the amount of skips hired nationally but that doesn't help me because if I am to start a skip hire business it will only be servicing the medway/Kent area.

How do I find the answer to this type of questions?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Tia

 

[Gecko001]

If the data you want exists, it will have been collected at considerable cost to the organisation or company wanting to benefit from it. Hence they are likely to want to keep the data to themselves. You will probably have to collect the data yourself or pay a market research company to collect it for you.

 

[skip in my dreams]

Now you have pointed it out, I can see that is the reason the data isn't in the public domain.

When I have posed as a customer to local would be competitors, there is almost always a few days wait for a skip to be delivered to my home address, although practically all of them advertise next day delivery on their websites, which tells me there is demand but I was hoping for something a bit more conclusive than that though.

Looks like who to target marketing to would be an educated guess too!

 

[Gecko001]

Builders are likely to give the skip hire firms repeat custom. Private customers will usually want just a one-of skip. That could be why the private customers get a slow service.

 

[obscure]

As Gecko said. You could pay for a market research company to find the data for you.

Alternatively contact the fire brigade and ask them how many cases their have been of ne'er-do-wells setting fire to skips. That number will equal 100% of skips in use at the time.

 

[skip in my dreams]

Alternatively contact the fire brigade and ask them how many cases their have been of ne'er-do-wells setting fire to skips. That number will equal 100% of skips in use at the time.



 

[The Byre]

It will be about 80% builders, followed by DIY building projects and clearances.

Nobody has some magic demographic analysis, because skip-hire is nearly all building trades and the rest ain't worth analysing! They come, they go, never to be seen again!

Now that you have a national figure, divide that by the number of households or people in your target area and you have the market size.

Now divide that by the number of skip-hire companies and you have an average company turnover.

Now divide that by the usual trade-price for a skip and you have the average number of skips moved by a company.

Keep slicing and dicing the information like that and a picture for the market and what you can expect to achieve begins to slowly emerge from the clouds of fog.

 

[skip in my dreams]

Hi The Byre,

Sound advice, thanks.

 

[fisicx]

Spoke to my mate who is in the trade and he said almost everyone who wants a skip is in the trade. People don't want a skip as they don't want to pay for disposal - they can take all their rubbish down the local recycling centre.

He also said the next day delivery thing is a red-herring. Most builders book them well in advance so no need for next day delivery. The biggest local operator now has his own landfill site - worked out a lot cheaper than paying the local council.

 

[The Byre]

P.S. About half the non-builder trade will be at the request or recommendation of a builder who does not want to have that in his books.

 

[skip in my dreams]

He also said the next day delivery thing is a red-herring. Most builders book them well in advance so no need for next day delivery. The biggest local operator now has his own landfill site - worked out a lot cheaper than paying the local council.

Hi Fificx,

Landfill is a thing of the past, you won't get a licence for a new one and the existing ones are having trouble renewing their licences. I'm in the waste management industry, everything is being recycled, paper, plastic, card wood etc , most of the other materials are turned into SRF balled and sent abroad for power stations, domestic rubbish (black sack from a kitchen bin) goes to incinerators and turned into energy, with very little going to landfill.

 

[fisicx]

Well whatever he's got it's his. You see his full skips going in and coming out empty. He's been there for years, I think it's an old quarry.

Our local recyling centre has a big sign that says: 'anything in this contain goes to landfill'

 

[skip in my dreams]

While I'm not disputing what you are saying..

Landfill tax is £88.95 per tonne alone, that's without a single overhead. While there is a lower rate of landfill tax of about £2 odd, that is for things like top soil or hardcore and it has to be clean, i.e not must not contain anything other then one material which you never get in a skip.
seems like he has more money than sense. Why would he take the contents of a skip to landfill when a good proportion of the contents can be recovered, separated and sold on.

 

[fisicx]

Why would he take the contents of a skip to landfill when a good proportion of the contents can be recovered, separated and sold on.

Maybe he does separate - I just know he does everything in house.

However this is getting off topic. The point being made is: your market research won't reveal anything useful as most skips are hired by or on behalf of builders.

 

[skip in my dreams]

I have a habit of going off topic, you should ask my wife, she is always on at me about it

Cheers..

 

[fisicx]

I know the feeling.

My wife has just pointed out that he must separate out 'cos you can buy bricks from him.

 

[EnhanceAccountancy]

To assess demand, why not take a look at the number of local planning applications made on your local authority’s website? Or new build rates? What is the medium/long term housing requirement plan in your area?

 

[Mpg]

Where there is muck there is money.

You'll probably have trouble getting exact figures from the skip guys. There is a lot of cash in that business and I bet not all of it goes through the books.

As mentioned above with landfill whats probably going on is its all being dumped on his land, then sorted and sent for recycling in the big Skips/containers. 8 yard skips around here are £150 and a container full sent to our council site is around £1000. So the less they send the more they profit.