Just a note overall -
Yes, we are very, very busy. We are trying to get as much out the door as possible as fast as possible. ATM, it is only me, not some large business with a dozen workers. My younger sons are at college and my older one graduated and works now and only helps me on weekends. In a few days my "crew" starts to return from college and will be assisting me as well until their break ends.
I try my best to get things done as fast as possible. As an example, I worked over the entire Thanksgiving holiday. This past weekend, I worked 8 hours on Saturday and 16 hours on Sunday filling orders and casting. Of course we work at least 6 -8 hours a day during the week this time of year. I do have limits to my endurance, but I do get things done. I have no complaints except I wish the day was 30 hours long and not 24.
Right now we are running behind casting and with some vehicle stock as we are awaiting restocks on some items.Thera re a few imported items we are awaiting restocks on but we have done pretty well managing our supplies this year. Frostgrave items are all in stock ready to ship.
On the title of the post – I think speaking in absolutes is just asking for trouble.
However, the notion of BrigadeGames going out of business borders on the absurd. We have been in business for almost 16 years (officially 16 years in February 2016.)
We are well capitalized. We own or co-own most of the ranges we sell (in excess of 2000 items) except of course the ones we import or retail. I have a good day job in a family business so it is not my sole income, nor will it probably ever be. So take the silly notion of us going out of business as that isn't going to happen. Could I sell it some day? Possibly, but unlikely. Could we acquire someone else or merge? Anything is possible and I have learned in business not to say never. Is anything on the horizon, no. Heck, we are currently digesting our co-purchase of Iron Ivan. BrigadeGames is a labor of love and I have lots of plans in the works for 2016 and beyond.
Business planning.
What I have started to do is shift some of my casting to a contract casting partner. (Yes, I have been doing all my own casting since LWR blew up many yeas ago.) This change is being done to help me cope with the increase in volume and the growth plans I have for the business. This will continue at a decent pace with more and more each month moving to the contractor. The benefit to customers is my response rates for filling orders will decrease which is a positive for everyone including myself. We will be running some KS in 2016 for new and existing ranges and look forward to bringing some great products to market.
Brands we import – We have a pretty darn deep stock of most items, most of the time. We try to keep everything we import in stock, but it is a near impossible to predict a run on a specific "whoseewhatsit" at any point in time. With the explosion of online sites and media it makes managing what is expected to happen regarding stock impact of articles and the like quite difficult. We order quite regularly, at least once a month and more than that as volume and time of year dictates. Sometimes items get caught in a short situation where we reordered but were shorted in a shipment or where we unexpectedly ran out of an item between restocks. It happens.
USA brands we stock – We typically have a decent stock level of most items. Again, we can not predict when there are runs on items. Most everything in the "wargames industry" revolves around small niche players. This can be a challenge when trying to keep items in stock if the brand isn't able to supply or get supplied consistently from their contractors when orders are placed.
Hope that helps give some clarity. Subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with everything.
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