Most resellers can tell you the markup they put on hose. Far fewer can tell you what a sellable metre actually cost them once the coil has been cut, the offcuts binned, the delivery paid and somebody has spent ten minutes at the bench. That gap is where hose margin quietly disappears — and it is why two stockists buying at the same price can end the year with very different numbers.
This is a working breakdown for motor factors, merchants, plant hire depots and independent stockists reselling silicone hose and mouldings and rubber hose. It uses real published Hoses UK coil prices, a realistic allowance for waste and handling, and clearly illustrative sell prices so you can rebuild the sums with your own figures. If you want the basics of markup versus margin first, our guide to setting up a trade hose counter covers it; this post goes one step further, to landed cost.
Start From the Coil, Not the Metre
Continuous rubber hose is bought by the coil, so the first job is turning a coil price into a cost per metre. Taking current prices from our range (ex VAT, at the time of writing — always check the product page for today’s rate):
| Rubber Multi Purpose Hose, 6mm x 13mm | £140.00 per 100 m coil = £1.40 per metre before any allowances. |
| Rubber Radiator Hose, 32mm x 42mm | £101.50 per 20 m coil = £5.08 per metre (rounded). |
| Rubber Heater Hose, 16mm x 25mm | £52.00 per 20 m coil = £2.60 per metre. |
| Silicone Radiator Hose, 13mm x 22mm | £6.99 per 1 m length — sold as a finished length, so no coil maths. |
| Silicone 90 Degree Elbow, 6mm x 15mm | £3.64 each — mouldings are priced per piece and sold whole. |
That split matters. Coil lines carry cutting, waste and storage that per-piece silicone mouldings do not, so the two should never share one blanket markup. Our explainer on how wholesale hose pricing works covers why the coil is the wholesale unit in the first place.
Where the Margin Actually Leaks
A Worked Example
Here are three lines taken through to a margin on the selling price. The sell prices below are illustrative only — not a recommended price — and you should set your own against your local market. The cost side assumes a 5% offcut allowance on coil lines and a basket over £500, so carriage on standard delivery is nil.
| 6mm multi purpose rubber (per m) | Landed cost £1.47 → illustrative sell £2.50 → margin about 41%. |
| 32mm rubber radiator hose (per m) | Landed cost £5.34 (£101.50 over 19 sellable metres) → illustrative sell £8.50 → margin about 37%. |
| 6mm x 15mm silicone 90° elbow (each) | Landed cost £3.64, no waste → illustrative sell £6.50 → margin about 44%. |
Two things fall out of this. First, the per-piece silicone line earns its margin with no bench time at all, which is why mouldings are such good counter stock. Second, the bigger-bore rubber lines carry most of the cash per sale but lose the most to waste, so cutting discipline matters more there than anywhere. For reinforced lines in the reinforced rubber hose and tubing range, run the same sums — the higher coil price makes every wasted metre more expensive.
Costing a New Line in Five Steps
Buying to Protect the Margin
The cleanest lever is the basket. The £500 minimum order (ex VAT) applies across the whole order, not per line, so one consolidated order of rubber coils, silicone mouldings and clips clears free standard delivery and lands as one goods-in. Stocked orders dispatch within 1–2 working days of cleared payment, which lets you hold leaner and reorder more often rather than buying deep on slow sizes.
Payment is straightforward: every Hoses UK order is on pro-forma and settled before dispatch. There are no credit checks and no application stage, and that simplicity is part of how the published wholesale pricing and stock depth are kept where they are.
Want to build your own margin sheet? Browse the published wholesale prices, or ask the team about bores and coil lengths. New trade customers take £25 off their first order.
