Hello ,
Greetings from flight FR2533.. The early morning flight from Malaga, Spain to Bratislava, Slovakia.
Last week I was telling you about the dodgy stuff that dodgy importers get up to. You can read about it here.
If you are regular reader you will know we are in the process of opening a new distribution warehouse in Slovakia. It's our own little Brexit insurance policy. Tomas from HQ has been billeted there to make stuff happens.
The first container from China arrived and as luck would have it, it got pulled for a customs and drugs test. In the UK it is a rare event, here I guess we are new kid on the block so they are checking us out.
The thing is in China we load our own containers and to ensure every inch of space is used we employ a packing wizard.. This guy who is an expert in the stuffing and stacking of cartons like a huge 40 cubic 3D tetris puzzle - he directs packing to use every single square inch of space. That space is expensive so you don't want to waste it right?
The shipping guy calls Tomas.. We got a problem he says. Apparently, Slovakian customs have never seen a container like ours.. They opened it, off loaded enough to do their checks.. Now, however they try.. Whatever they do.. They cannot make it fit back in the container. Kinda funny right? But we have to pay.. And in the end we either pay delay costs at the port until those guys solve the 3D puzzle or pay for couple of pallets of stock they can't fit back in to be shipped separately. Tomas is tearing his hair out.
The joys of importing I tell him.
The container is arriving tomorrow, a Saturday delivery to avoid more expensive storage charges. The second container will arrive in just a few days.. And another from Indonesia comes on Wednesday - we are hoping with fewer headaches. Then we will be pretty much ready to rock and roll.
Meanwhile back in Sheffield after last week's bank holiday weekend, we are still seriously under pressure. It's a time for staff holidays coupled with high demand coupled with maximum goods inwards.. Stock arriving for the Christmas period. But the team are pulling hero shifts and working like crazy to get your orders out. Salt Lamps, soap flowers, soy candles.. all flying lines so it's going a bit mad.
Birmingham trade show.. If you are going, we won't be there. Don't expect to see us. Interesting fact.. Ancient Wisdom has never done a trade show. Why? Well quite simply we have no sales people, we figured out years ago that it's all about the products.. They should be good enough to sell themselves.. OK we do a bit of online marketing, but no salespersons makes us much more competitive. It works well for us and we like to think even better for our customers. Well the smart ones (like you) who order online.
If you are following the Rodrigo saga (6 months exciled).. Maybe some news next week. Fingers crossed we heard a decision has been made a while ago .. But no passport or visa came yet.
It's September.. HEAVENS ABOVE!
That means it's Christmas already.
Have a great week.
David