Total Cost of Ownership

All too often, we see businesses look only at the purchase price of the new capital equipment, and unfortunately pay little heed to what the equipment is going to cost them in the medium and long term of operation (2 years plus).

Therefore a wise and successful director/manager, when purchasing capital equipment, considers the initial outlay as only one component in the considerations of the purchase. In some instances it can even be the least significant consideration. The considerations when buying a live seafood tank should be:

(a) What is the capital cost of the equipment?
(b) What are the operating costs involved in running the equipment?
(c) What will be the maintenance cost of the equipment?
(d) What will be the reliability of the equipment?
(e) What effect will a failure have on my costs; firstly with regards to my customer satisfaction and secondly with regard to the damage to stock?
(f) Will the equipment perform comfortably to the specification I require?
(g) What will be the value of equipment if I decide to sell it?

It is known that Austmarine tanks sometimes have a higher initial purchase price than other less sophisticated systems. This is due to the commercial nature of the design of the Austmarine tanks and the quality components which make up the system. However the remainder of the ‘total cost’ for owning an Austmarine tank is significantly lower than any other tank in the marketplace. It is these perpetual costs that make other tanks dramatically more expensive than the Austmarine system.

The first perpetual cost for clients is the cost of operating the equipment. In live seafood tanks this comes in three forms; power, water and labour.

The Austmarine System is designed in every aspect to be extremely efficient. Tests have shown that running an Austmarine MC1000 at 10 degrees in 25 degrees ambient, the power cost is below $5.35 a day. For our competitors to do the same job, their power consumption is closer to $32.00 per day.

With no water changes required on the Austmarine tanks the ongoing cost of seawater is removed. Removing the need to change the water every few weeks, removes the labour content of 1 employee for 1-2 hours per week and the cost of re-refrigerating the water. Austmarine is the only system that can boast ‘no water changes’ as the Austmarine systems have been specifically engineered for the commercial throughput of live seafood (not based on aquarium designs).

The Austmarine tanks are manufactured to the highest standard of quality using quality components. This reduces the maintenance requirements as the equipment is extremely reliable. Our components are either manufactured in our factory or sourced from around the world to create the most reliable system possible for ongoing reliability. For these reasons, Austmarine offers a two year warranty on all parts and labour, which highlights the Austmarine equipment quality.

All Austmarine equipment is built to one specification. That is the worst case scenario in the worst conditions. This guarantees that every Austmarine tank will perform as efficiently and reliably in any part of the world.

As the tanks are built using quality components, they have a very long operating life. As such, there is a large market for second-hand Austmarine equipment, which provides strong resale market value on equipment bearing the Austmarine name.

All of these aspects can be ascribed a financial value and the sum of all these amounts gives the real cost of the equipment to the business for each year of operation. This cost should be the main cost of significance to the business which we refer to as the “the total cost of ownership”.

In most instances, those who purchase live seafood tanks based on the cheapest price, do their business an injustice because cheapest equipment most times relates to poorest quality equipment and higher total cost of ownership.

It can be easily seen, that choosing the Austmarine equipment is a smart business decision that will see dramatically lower total cost of ownership over the life of the equipment. The Austmarine name is one that is internationally recognised and endorsed with a solid reputation of performance, reliability and quality. This Austmarine advantage is one that continues to provide value to your business long after the initial purchase price.