Q: Why are Kerley's prices quoted FOB Shipping Point and not delivered like most ink companies do?
A: We get this question quite often. Basically, we do this for two reasons: first, because we are a wholesale ink manufacturer. We don't sell to many printers (where we do quote a delivered price). Most of our business is to inkmakers, where we expect that other professionals in our industry know what a pound of ink is worth, stripped of "padding" like delivery costs. Many inkmakers actually prefer to take charge of their freight costs, so they can get the best cost possible into their customer's plant. The second reason we don't quote delivered prices is because we would need a full-time freight department. If we don't have to worry as much about freight, then we can focus our resources on the most important things: like making the ink on-standard and on-time.
Q: Where can I find details about Kerley's pricing policy?
A: There are two places you can find our pricing policy in writing. The first place is in the catalog found on this website. Just look in the table of contents. The second place is in the first few pages of our printed catalog.
Q: Why is it that I can't get combination discounts on orders of less than 4 drums of each color?
A: The primary reason for this is that we make 4 drum batches of black and many colors. We make our most profit when we can make and sell the whole batch all at once. If we have to sell only part of the batch that we make, we are faced with the cost of holding the portion of the batch that does not get sold. Thus we have to charge a bit more. Notice this does not apply to any ink component, which are items that are not finished inks like bases, varnishes, extenders, etc. To see why we mean this, take a look in the photo gallery, where we show the mixers in our black plant.
Q: How can I get the deepest volume discounts?
A: If you are ordering finished inks, buy at least 4 drums of each formula. As soon as you do this, even those items can be eligible for deeper discounts. If you are buying ink components, order some finished inks at the same time. Buying both finished inks and ink components together almost always ensures discounting takes place on the ink components at the very least.