Dealer group Office Club has resigned its membership of the BOSS Federation following what it says is a 400% increase in its subscription fees.
Managing director Mark Austen says the group was notified of the increase this week and feels that at that cost membership no longer offers enough value to members. “Subscription fees are now based on the number of members in the group and our total turnover. That means we are paying over £20,000 with a commitment to an additional five figure sum invested in the OPDEX initiative.”
Keith Davies, chief executive of BOSS, says he is disappointed to see the group go but says the increase is in line with the BOSS Executive Board's stated aim to make subscription fees transparent and harmonised across all sections of the membership. “In the spirit of openness and transparency that is the new BOSS , changes had to be made to bring Office Club subscriptions into line with the other dealer groups and membership in general. The group has been enjoying lower than standard rates for some time.
“A group like Office Club with a turnover of around £250 million is now being asked to pay £20,114 plus VAT, for its entire membership of over 300 dealers and its head office. That means each dealer is still getting membership at way under the price of £275 plus vat for a small independent dealer joining.” He says most other groups will not be adversely affected because they are already paying more than Office Club.
Mark Austen says: “The initiatives BOSS is involved with are either funded separately like OPDEX or take so long to come to fruition that they are no longer of value. We have reviewed the services on offer and we believe we can obtain all of those that are of use to our members substantially cheaper elsewhere. Our members will not notice the difference. It cannot make sense for a group to be levied the same charge per dealer for a small dealer with a turnover of, say £200,000 as, for example, Oyez Straker, the cost to the Federation of supporting both are radically different.
“We have sample-surveyed our members and almost all are unwilling to pay the additional cost of BOSS membership themselves. Historically we have absorbed the cost centrally, but can no longer afford to at these new rates, it is the cost of a member of staff! Ultimately Office Club is a small company, and we have to deliver value to our members in exactly the same way as BOSS.”
17-Dec-2003
