Hello all

[Strat Fan]

Has it always been like this.... as in a very long wait for a kit, or is this more of a COVID, supply chain, late 70's-early 00's cars skyrocketing in demand, thing that is happening?

I'm assuming especially in the LB case where they seem to be moving complete cars mostly, its the latter quite a bit.

Speaking on behalf of LB then it is a combination of all of the above.
The LB order list had got rather long before Covid ever came along and staff levels had also been increased accordingly to help cope with demand.
Then Covid came along and staff were put on furlough etc which clearly didn't help production.
Upon the return to work then half the staff then decided that they preferred to be paid to sit at home and do nothing and didn't actually need to work so that among with a few other staff scenarios halved the staff levels instantly.
New staff after covid were then hard to find partly because of our geographic location but also because no one wanted to actually work anymore. This seems to be a fairly common theme when you talk to other companies as well.
With less staff and still a significant order book, the new found supply chain issues & then Brexit thrown in to the mix as well has to have a negative affect on how things operate.
LB have always offered in house builds and because of some of the press received over the years then there has always been a strong demand for turn key or turn key minus projects, maybe from markets where kits aren't a familiar thing.
In reality some of the orders being processed currently are actually still kit based but the majority are now turn key or turn key minus.
There are arguments either way but because of the comprehensive nature of the LB kit mated to the supply chain issues brought about by Covid and Brexit then the parts availability for inhouse builds is currently more controllable than it is for kit supply. A prime example for us is wiring looms, since covid our previous supplier simply couldn't supply, we couldn't then find an alternative supplier who could get remotely near the price so we ended up tooling up & building the harnesses in house.
With the reduced staff levels we have we can make approx 10-12 looms a year when combined with other jobs which works well for inhouse builds but the demand for kits is much higher so we couldn't match those demands and also those of the inhouse builds as well. If we haven't got a wiring loom for an in house build we can simply move onto another element of the build or move on to a different car. The home builder cannot do this so his build would stall and that creates an issue.
With shipping costs having gone through the roof recently as well then it is also simply not viable to be posting follow on items out at a later date especially globally as parts then come back into stock.

Sorry for the essay

Craig