Paul, good luck on your new venture. I can tell you one thing, its bloody hard work running a distributorship. Please don't be dragged down the road of huge discounting, it all ends in tears as we have seen so often over the last few years with Olympic and others going tits up. 40% isn't a massive amount. Thats 40 quid for every 100 quids worth of products. Most people buy the amount needed to get free delivery so that delivery cost, £8-16 has to come out of that 40 quid. Then you have rent, rates, electricity, marketing, vehicle costs etc. You will be left with about £10 before tax. Keep in mind, and this applies to carpet cleaners as well, every 10% discount means you have to do 25% more mork or sales to make up the lost profit. Put your prices up by 10% and you can do 25% less work for the same profit. That 10% is straight off or on your bottom line.
Good luck.