Thursday 8 August 2013

Getting Ready for the new Season

It is the start of August, the days remain warm and last night was the first one to fall below 10degrees since the 'summer' - a couple of orders have arrived and been fulfilled from the stock.

 Dilemma time - How many Fans will we sell this season ?
  • The same as last year, more or less ?
  • Is the next day service really adding customers or just cost to the business ?
  • Do we add to, Reduce or maintain the existing range of products ?
From a business point of view, the results for last year were encouraging, sustainable going forward as the Capital Outlay has been made and pretty near re-paid. The stock position is 'ok' given last years sales for the 3rd qtr. But maybe sales will increase.. maybe not ?

The Remaining Question - Do we want to carry on with this little project of ours ? We have pretty much resolved the product manufacturing issues and can manufacture far in excess of demand at its expected level. Supply of components has settled down and other than a few 'postage' cost increases the cost base is much as it was.

All in all, "If" sales are as last year, the business will perform well as the fixed overhead costs remain unchanged and the depreciation will be recovered within a further 100 unit sales.

So, we will see how the next season progresses and work on similar volume of sales as last year, having resolved most of the issues encountered last year we can increase output pretty quickly.

In order to make the project a little more 'slick' we have invested in a new website which we hope to have on line in the next 6 weeks. To coincide with this, some new branding and product support (instructions etc) will be brought together.

Stock of the 'Black Krome' variants have been produced all be it in limited numbers - sold on a first come first served basis as last year.

Some further component production required to provide a cushion for any increase in order intake and then it should be a 'smooth' ride to January.

Development of new variants has taken a back seat much of the year as development work was completed to remove production bottle necks, seeing how each added option has increased the stock required we are now looking only to add products for different applications rather than ' premium / economy range etc. As with all things this may change at any time :-)