Builder, the Netherlands-based manufacturer of some very large 3D printers, has established their US marketing strategy.
As someone who regularly attends 3D print events in Europe, I often see fascinating equipment that sometimes is not available for easy purchase in North America.
While it is frequently possible to make specific arrangements with a distant manufacturer directly and ship machines for import, that’s not ideal. Bringing equipment across borders is never my idea of a fun engagement.
After a machine is acquired in this way, there is a second problem: support. With no agents in the local area, distant manufacturers can often only supply remote support, and that can be quite problematic if hands-on efforts are required.
Thus 3D printer manufacturers with no local presence tend to have lower sales levels, mostly because potential clients are spooked by the perils of import / export and subsequent support scenarios.
The right answer is for a 3D printer manufacturer, particularly the smaller to medium-sized manufacturers, to establish a reseller network.
Resellers are typically not manufacturers of equipment, but merely import, sell and support them. Those are exactly the needs of distant 3D printer manufacturers, in fact.
It’s thus vitally important for 3D printer manufacturers to establish a reseller relationship, or better, a network of resellers. You always want the highest number of people selling your machines, don’t you?
Builder is precisely in this situation. They are a very competent manufacturer located in Europe where they have a well-established network of sellers and support. But in the US and other markets, they are not nearly as visible or accessible.
Thus they have announced a new reseller, Dynamism, who will market their products exclusively in that country.
It’s very tough to obtain a US reseller for 3D printing equipment because most of the larger ones have signed deals with Stratasys to sell ONLY Stratasys equipment. These resellers, large though they may be, are off-limits to others such as Builder.
Builder’s relationship with Dynamism should be a good thing not only for them, as they gain access to a large market, but also for Dynamism and their clients. Currently, Dynamism seems to sell a number of highly reputable 3D print products including those from Desktop Metal, Formlabs, MakerGear, LulzBot and Ultimaker, another Netherlands company.
The 21-year old Dynamism should also benefit with the addition of Builder, their product line now includes very large build format options, which previously they did not provide.
