A story of minimum order quantity and lead time
In summer, there was a time we thought everything went too smoothly. Indeed, we were naïve and thinking: "What are all the people starting up businesses whining about? Easy peasy."
Autumn came, and we did not prove to be an exception to the rule. As you read in our last blog post, we decided to change the main 'ingredient' to our product. Luckily, it has now arrived at the production facility, and we're ready to produce the first rolls next week!
Last week, however, another unexpected thing happened, and we want to share the news with you right away.
We advertised at the beginning that we will provide you with high-quality screw-fixed bar end plugs. Well, let's say the ones that will be included in the package don't match the image in our product page on our web page any longer. It turns out the supplier we had in Taiwan is out of stock. They can produce earliest in January. It would take another couple of weeks to ship, oh - and by the way, shipping cost would be more expensive than the order. Whoat?!
We really did not like the situation. Small companies like ours only need small quantities, and believe us, it's freaking hard to get answers for such requests. Out of 100 emails sent out, we got 3 answers back. The company in Taiwan was the only one with the plug we were looking for.
But don't worry, luck is on our side again. Like the story with our cotton, we found a solution that is not a compromise. We think it's an even nicer solution that rounds up our product package quite nicely.
Our new bar end plug is still an expander type. One could say it's a sort of evolution from the previous selected plug: the same secure fit without the screw. In fact, one of our testers reported that she lost the screw-type plug because she forgot to tighten the screw. This can no longer happen with the new version. It consists of two parts, meaning you can first keep the handlebar tape in place with one piece, and once you're happy with the result, you plug in the other piece and lock everything in place:
And the best thing is: this time we don't have to wait for our package to arrive from the far southeast. Instead, the supplier is now a company headquartered in Finland: Herrmans Bike Components Ltd. They have been in the industry for over 60 years.
And with this change, we can proudly announce: our supply-chain is 100% EU-based! Next time, note to ourselves: check around you first before looking to the other side of the globe.
So, we hope you all are okay with our last-minute change. ;)
As promised in the previous post, we are pushing hard to set up the new webpage and preparing for the final release. Looking forward to see you all soon in our shop.
Cheers!