Gauging the Competition
Since Hay Burners Equine started up in 2014 we have experienced tremendous growth thanks to our loyal customer base helping to spread the word about our top quality products and customer service. Since then the market for slow feed nets has gained a number of companies vying for a piece of the market. Most are copycats of an established brand that do not appear to be very similar to our type of material and construction our customer base has become accustomed to. More recently a hay net company has made a massive push into the US market and even uses the term “USA” in their name, though the nets appear to be wholly made in China. The purpose of this blog is to point out what you should be looking for when products may look the same but in actuality are not.
Merely looking at the attributes and claims of this new seller to the US market it appeared they were using the same material we use and basic construction methods. The only way to verify this was to purchase a net from them and evaluate it in-hand. Every company does this to gauge where they stand against their competition. This bag was indeed constructed in a similar manner to ours but the woven netting material utilized was not the same as ours. Not even close. The hay net we purchased from them was advertised as being a 5mm thickness. Upon closer inspection it was found their material was 5mm wide but only 3.5mm thick. Think of the cross section being like a rectangle vs a square. On the other hand Hay Burners Equines material has a cross section more like a square and it’s the same in both the width of the cord as it is in the thickness.
In actuality, this makes Hay Burners Equine’s material approximately 40% thicker than this competitor’s even though the spec is the same as advertised. A good portion of the cost of a slow feed hay net is held in the raw material. Finding a way to reduce that cost goes right to the bottom line. At Hay Burners Equine we will never short change you on the quality and durability of the materials we utilize in our products. If we wouldn’t choose a particular material for our own use we won’t sell it to you just to increase our profits. You, as the customer should be able to trust what you are getting and we’ll never compromise on that trust.
At Hay Burners Equine we prefer to use the best materials we can source and advertise honestly. We build all our slow feed solutions in Tennessee. When you have a question and decide to call, you are speaking with the Owner. Not a customer service person in a call center unrelated to the company. We prefer to put our money into the materials and let the finished product be our advertising through you, our valued customer. Skimping on material quality and spending the additional profits on aggressive ad campaigns to bolster sales, to us, doesn’t seem like the best way to build a lasting customer base. We hope you agree and will continue to spread the word about Hay Burners Equine’s slow feed net solutions.