Hello all

[Strat Fan]

Thank you for the explanation Craig, probably more than was necessary but a useful insight for customers to realise what hurdles the manufacturers have to leap over or stumble through for every kit! I guess this means you have to hold significant stocks in fairly low numbers, sufficient for 3 or 4 builds to achieve your goal of supplying turnkey or minus cars. The chances of getting "just in time" suppliers in this industry must be zero!

Gerry is in a slightly different position but is beholden to sub contractors and Brexit has had an effect. Chronosport in Italy appear to have copied his bodies and are now putting them on an in house designed chassis, a situation that seems to have arisen due to increasing demand in Italy (and maybe Europe) and and unwillingness on Gerrys' part not to supply them with kits at the drop of a hat, pushing other customers down the waiting list. Whether Chronosport become a serious competitor to either Hawk or LB in the future we don't know but I suspect not. The likelihood is that some bureaucrat in Italy will stamp on the practice of making a replica there? They do now have an advantage selling into Europe thanks to Brexit though but how long will it take them to build the reputation of Hawk or LB? Who knows? Furthermore I don't know if this has soured the relationship Gerry has with them to the point of not supplying parts to them?

I also get what you're saying on shipping costs, especially worldwide but I think Hawk is a slightly different business model in that Gerry supplies the base kit and customers return to him for additional parts as builds progress. Obviously the customer pays additional shipping costs this way.

Guy

Yes, apologies, it wasn't meant as a thread hijack.
I just wanted to say something because I feel that in reality there are far more things to deal with day to day in a post 2020 world than some customers would ever imagine.
Over the last 2 years or so a number of suppliers have simply gone, some cannot get stock because of the backlog since covid, others were buying from Europe and Brexit has cocked that up.
The just in time suppliers may not even exist anymore.

The Chronosport situation is not good and it is somewhat dirty. At least they haven't simply copied the chassis as well. what other parts they use I guess remains to be seen.
How anyone is registering a new Alfa powered build in Italy under EU regulations is open to debate. If an engine is not EU6 compliant it goes against the EU emissions directive.

Five in house builds on the go at one at one time would be a nice manageable figure, we have more than that ongoing currently but are working to get down to that sort of figure.
I think we've made something like 20 wiring looms in house over the last 18months and we are only now catching up with what we needed or what was owed.