Wholesale I have been Cancelled - Ancient Wisdom - Giftware and Aromatherapy Supplier

Greetings - unfortunately from Spain

Hope you are doing OK..

Last week I was in our distribution centre in Slovakia, and telling you about my upcoming trip to Indonesia. If you missed it, you can catch up here.

I was due to fly on Tuesday to Jakarta, but over the weekend the Indonesian government canceled all foreign visas throwing all my plans into confusion.

Last week I possessed the question: Should I stay or should I go?.. and was genuinely feeling anxious about traveling to a covid hot spot. Quite a few kind people wrote to me telling me not to go.. anyway folks.. for now the option is off the table.

I have a visa agent working on possible solutions but don't hold out much hope.

Romance is in the air at AW...

Graciela, who works in the Spain office, announced her engagement and was flashing an impressive engagement ring.

In Slovakia Mirriama (who looks after the AWGifts.eu website) was wed, in traditional Slovakia style.

And many of you will know Kristy from UK customer services (now she works in the purchasing dept) who is finally able to have a lovely English wedding..

We wish them all a wonderful future and lots of happiness.

Meanwhile since I'm back in Spain I have been getting involved in AWArtisan - lots and lots of stock arriving.. I have to say long awaited stock.

Stock that has cost vastly more to get here and involved massive amounts of arguing and stress. Containers from Indonesia, China and shipments from India in the last week or so.. plus two 40ft trucks from UK production.

Previously we have shipped from UK to Slovakia and then to Spain (Slovakia office having mastered all the customs import regulations there) - but clearly ridiculously inefficient sending stock on a merry-go-round through Europe.

So we had to bite the bullet and find a way to ship directly to Spain, and Spain has an extra layer of rules and bureaucracy - especially when it comes to soap - they hate soap imports.

Post Brexit we already knew would be difficult... so we already had a plan.. last month we shipped two mixed pallets of stock just as a learning curve to see what issues might arise - and there were lots. so having learned what tariff codes make the customs people happy, what changes to labels, what declarations need making, what country of origin forms to fill.. etc etc etc.. we were ready to scale up.. and so crossed our fingers and despatched two 40ft trailers with hopefully enough stock for a few months.

We used to load a truck and it arrived a couple of days later.. now from leaving Sheffield to finally arriving in Malaga a full month. And what used to cost a few hundred pounds and say 5% of the shipment, now costs tens of thousands and a lot of stress.

A customs person who clocks off at 2pm, makes petty unreasonable requests and seems to be unable to reply to responses, thus delaying clearance again and again. customs officials are waging an unofficial trade war against imports..

Toni is a hero.. our man in Spain has become a world expert in importing in this new age.. sorting the issues one by one and then.. cajoling, persuading, and making official complaints until it is sorted.

Maybe they feel they are doing their patriotic duty to disrupt trade, but even without them there are enough problems.. the cost of shipping containers from Asia is still $10,000 per container more than it should be and shows no sign of coming down. Raw material costs in Indonesia, China and India are spiraling out of control, every purchase order we make is returned with a request for a price increase, or worse - unable to fulfill orders right now.

So they say CASH is KING.. in a crisis it's good to have money to get you out of a hole.

But this is a strange new world we live in.. I'm now telling my team that things have changed.

Now.. STOCK is KING..

That money in the bank is losing buying power day by day like a melting iceberg. Whilst the stock you hold could well be appreciating in value dramatically.

Anyway, without stock how can we do business?

It's almost August..

And that means the start of the Christmas season is getting closer and closer.

We do have stock arriving in the UK, an Indian container just arrived, with lots of Indian cotton items from Mr. Chatterjee factory in Kolkata.

Salt lamps and Hymalian salt products also recently arrived.

Plus we have a new range of candles from a new supplier in Poland, our regular German supplier is complaining that raw material is in short supply so there will be delays.

Hope you will enjoy the end of July, and manage to relax a little in August.

Take care and stay safe.

For the minute I'm stranded (not unhappily) in Spain at my home.

Next week I will update you with any developments.

David