Grüße,
hat von den aktuell wartenden schon wer neue Infos, wie der aktuelle Stand der Dinge ist?
Für alle Lesefreudigen hier das Email das ich am 8.4.erhielt:
"I wanted to keep you in the loop of what is going on and how this effects you, our valued customer and us as a brand.
Ever since we started moving production in house we felt like we traded chasing complete frames with chasing frame building parts.
The main reason for this is, that up until today we have not found enough and good quality suppliers to source all the parts we need for our frames out of Europe.
And if we did, it would raise the costs of our frames to a level that we do not feel comfortable with and which we do not want to offer.
We always tried to be “reachable/affordable” while still maintaining that custom option.
Currently that international approach is almost killing us.
What is the situation:
Our shipping of dropouts and small parts such as brake mounts, a few chainstays and derailleur hangers for the whole planned production of quarter 1 of 2025 is still stuck in customs.
It is now the 12th week of our stuff kept hostage by the Belgian customs.
For your understanding: we have/had a shared container with multiple other companies in it sending stuff to Europe.
When the container arrived, something with one shipping in the container was “off” and Belgian customs put the whole container on hold while working on solving the issue.
What does that mean for you:
Currently we do have all of your main frames build and ready to be finished once the parts arrive but up until now, we have not been able to finish your frame..
What did we do to solve the problem:
We have been in constant contact with our suppliers, traders, lawyers and forwarders to solver the problem but up until today there has not been a solution for that shipping.
After I did write you the first email about the delay we were pretty confident that the matter will be solved in very few weeks time since we have had situations like this before and while its never been easy, its always been solved pretty quickly.
After my second email and already an 8 week delay, we urged our suppliers to produce new dropouts and small parts asap.
The lead time for parts such a cast/mold dropouts is usually around 50-60 business days. We made every effort to speed up production and now our partners will finish the missing parts around April 29th and we will airship everything to our facility in saxony.
We did manage to find additional help for the upcoming rear triangle welding session in order to finish your frame in the shortest time possible.
We talked to our powder coater to have all colors in stock and they are also keeping capacity back once we will flood them with frames all at once.
What does that mean for SOUR:
This is possibly the most tense and uncomforting situation me and my team have faced over the last few years. And just as a reminder, we started Sour one day before Covid hit…
We do know, that you are desperately waiting for good news from us and trust us, there is nothing we would like to do more than emailing you that the parts finally arrived.
When they arrive, the first thing we do is emailing you. There is nothing in the world that we want more. We need to get that pressure gone as soon as possible since the situation is putting so much tense and negativity on our team, after a certain time you just can’t leave stuff like that at work..
We don’t even want to post old/already produced photos on Instagram since a few people think that they are left behind while others receive their frames….this is not the case! Instagram is not real!
We upped all new lead times to a maximum where we know that we probably miss out on the starting season sales but right now we just dont want to add any more pressure on the team.
We are overly glad that you have staid with us up until now and we ask you to just hang on a little longer. We want to supply and deliver the frame, the bike and the ride experience that you are looking for and we are
100% sure to fulfill that task.
I am sorry that up until now I do not have better news for you. We are doing everything in our power to solve the matter asap."
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