Greetings from Spain
A lot of new people registering at AW this week, I think possibly looking for new suppliers as supplies from the EU shrink.
Anyway whatever the reason.. Welcome! welcome to AW newsletter that tells you what's going on and keeps you updated on all things AW.
Last week I was telling you about Storm Philomena which was lashing my home at the time. Also I was warning about other types of approaching storms. If you missed it you can read it here. And it's been getting that way all week, everyday bringing a new set of frustrating problems. Whose idea was it to do Brexit in the middle of a pandemic in the middle of a snow storm in the middle supply problems?
Oh yes.. I think we know who that might be..
Anyway UK supplies are running smoothly, and apart for snow reled delays we are shipping ok.
For our customers in Europe I strongly recommend using our EU warehouses for future orders, at least until this storm settles down. AWGifts.eu (Slovakia) or AWArtisan.eu (Spain)
Current shipping update: DPD (the biggest) has extended their freeze on shipments until an update expected today (15th Jan) and other large companies are doing the same kind of things.
Courier Logistics - UK all OK, but Northern Ireland technical problems.
UPS - the online system for uploading customs documents is still not correctly working.
DHL & TNT - still seems to be working.
Katka, Bryant and the team in UK are desperately trying to solve a range of what the shipping company refers to as "supply events" and what I would call something a bit more caustic.. how do you explain to a French person that they can't cancel an order that's sat in a lorry in heaven knows where, but on the way.. for the last ten day.. I told Katka.. keep calm and carry on..
This was supposed to be a free trade deal, it's not. If anything it's worse. At least we prepared for this in opening warehouses in Spain and Slovakia. They at least are mega busy as trade shifts. We are taking on more staff in both places, we are looking to recruit a French speaking person to be the webmaster of AWArtisan.fr - if you know anyone in the Malaga region please forward this email to them.
Toni, our man in Spain is getting a little stressed, we don't have enough staff and fast running out of stock.. I told him to calm down and carry on..
The situation with the cost of shipping containers from Asia still remains a problem, prices to EU destinations are easing a bit, but to the UK still remains sky high.
We are still shipping from China, hoping to absorb most of the costs, but big bulky items will need to increase in price. Soap flowers for this reason we put on hold. Coco told me she is having trouble even booking a container at any price. Plus it's almost time for Chinese New Year and many places are closing early because of rumours the government will lockdown all the country to stop people travelling home for New Year - workers want to get away early to escape the ban. I told Coco to stay calm and carry on..
From Indonesia we took the decision to halt shipments until the prices reduced, because the shipping cost would have been as much as the product cost, potentially doubling prices.
Ringo, our man in Indonesia called me begging us to find a way to ship.. our warehouse is about 2000 square meters.. that's big, but now is crammed to the rafters. Even the offices and staff room are being used to store stock.
I told him to stay calm and carry on.. what can we do but wait until this storm passes.
Mr Catterjee called me from India, shipping prices are still a problem but more than this the domestic market has collapsed and suppliers have taken to asking for humanitarian price rises just to survive. I told him to keep calm and carry on.
So welcome to 2021, how's it going for you?
Keep calm.. and carry on.
Some good news.. some Atomisers came back in stock including some beautiful new models.
More good news next week.