Business model & revenue architecture
Published prices. Total cost disclosed upfront. Nothing that compounds.
Commercial streams are priced at market and generate the margin that funds concession access — so affordability does not depend on the next grant round.
Product & service tiers
Every tier, what it includes, and what it is for.
| Tier / stream | Target market | Indicative pricing (AUD) | Inclusions | Objective |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 — Concession | Concession card holders, pensioners, referred and crisis households | $120–$220 per unit, or a low weekly rental | 6-month warranty, free or discounted delivery and installation | Cost recovery only — no commercial margin |
| Tier 2 — Standard retail | General public, students, budget-conscious buyers | $280–$450 per unit | 3–6 month warranty, standard delivery | Primary margin stream funding Tier 1 |
| Tier 3 — Commercial B2B | Social housing, crisis accommodation, student housing | Contracted wholesale rates | Scheduled maintenance, priority replacement, fleet reporting | Stable recurring revenue and cash-flow smoothing |
| Collection service | Households, agents, retailers | $20–$30 per pickup | Removal plus chain-of-custody record | Offsets fleet, fuel and labour |
| Scrap & salvage | Metal recyclers, independent repairers | Market rate per kg / per part | Copper, steel, tested spare parts | Monetises write-offs; supports zero-to-landfill |
All pricing, cost and margin figures shown are indicative planning assumptions developed for modelling purposes. They are to be validated and replaced with observed data during the 50-unit supply pilot before being used in any binding commercial or grant commitment.
The cross-subsidy engine
Margin-generating streams fund access streams.
This is the mechanism that makes the model hold together commercially. Each retail unit generates roughly four times the contribution of a concession unit.
Margin-generating streams
Commercial B2B
Bulk supply and maintenance contracts to social housing providers, crisis accommodation and student housing.
Standard retail
General public, students and budget buyers — priced at the going second-hand market rate.
Collection & salvage
Fee-for-service pickup, plus scrap metal and harvested parts from write-offs.
Access streams
Tier 1 concession sales
Cost-recovery pricing for concession and health care card holders and referred households.
Flexible low-cost rental
Small regular payments, no credit check, no compounding interest, ownership option.
Crisis relief stock
Units released free or at nominal cost to households in acute crisis, via referral partners.
Unit economics
What a refurbished unit costs us, published.
A transparent planning model, not observed results — these figures exist to be tested and replaced by pilot data. We publish them because a customer and a funder are both entitled to see how a price is built.
| Direct cost component | Indicative | Basis and sensitivity |
|---|---|---|
| Collection and logistics (allocated share) | $15 | Assumes multi-unit pickups; rises sharply on single-unit runs |
| Replacement parts and consumables | $35 | Highly variable by fault type; parts harvesting from write-offs is the main lever |
| Workshop labour (supervision + trainee) | $45 | Largest and least certain input — depends on hours per unit and wage subsidy |
| Electrical safety testing and tagging | $5 | Marginal once equipment is capitalised; excludes supervisor time counted above |
| Total indicative direct cost | $100 | Excludes overheads |
$160 average price → ~$60 contribution
Covers direct cost and makes a small contribution to overhead. This tier is not intended to be profitable; it is intended not to lose money.
$340 average price → ~$240 contribution
Each retail unit generates roughly four times the contribution of a concession unit — the mechanism that makes Tier 1 pricing sustainable.
The sustainability rule
A minimum production mix is enforced so that access never outruns the margin funding it. The working rule is a floor on the proportion of output sold through Tier 2 and Tier 3 — set at approximately 40% commercial to 60% concession at the outset, and reviewed monthly against actual contribution rather than held as a fixed article of faith.
What these figures do not yet include
The $100 figure is direct cost only. A complete model must add fixed overheads before break-even can be claimed: workshop rent and outgoings, power, public liability and product liability insurance, vehicle lease and running costs, equipment depreciation, administration, marketing, warranty provision, and the portion of supervisor salary not allocated to units.
These determine the monthly volume required to break even, and cannot be estimated credibly without a confirmed site and wage structure. We will publish them when we have them.
The comparison
Why buy from us.
vs. rent-to-own
Total cost is disclosed upfront and does not compound. No credit check, no default cascade, and the household owns the machine at the end.
vs. marketplace second-hand
Electrically tested, tagged and warrantied, with delivery and installation included — rather than untested, uncollected and unsupported.
vs. buying new
A fraction of the upfront cost for a machine that is safety-certified and backed for six months, available immediately.
Buying for a housing portfolio or crisis accommodation? Contracted Tier 3 rates include scheduled maintenance and fleet reporting.
Get involved
No credit checks. No compounding interest. Published prices.
A household on a concession income should not have to choose between a rent-to-own contract that costs multiples of retail and an untested machine off a marketplace with no warranty. That is the whole reason this enterprise exists.