Pendraken Plans for 2020!

Started by Leon, 11 January 2020, 09:32:50 PM

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O Dinas Powys

(I know, even though it's fantasy  :o  ;)  )

FierceKitty

I don't drink coffee to wake up. I wake up to drink coffee.

Lord Kermit of Birkenhead

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FierceKitty

I don't drink coffee to wake up. I wake up to drink coffee.

Techno

Quote from: ianrs54 on 17 January 2020, 12:48:34 PM
No - it got vowls int

The village which is my 'postal addy', has a whole three vowels....in 12 letters.

I live halfway between that....and a far more useful village for shops etc....mind you, that one hasn't got a single vowel in seven letters.  ;D

Cheers - Phil

O Dinas Powys

Quote from: FierceKitty on 17 January 2020, 10:36:48 AM
Welsh word?

Nope, perfectly good English word, just not the one that was supposed to be there so obviously a typo you dick  =)
(I know, even though it's fantasy  :o  ;)  )

FierceKitty

Truth's a dog that must to kennel. He must be whipped out, when Lady the Brach may stand by th' fire and stink.

(I remember writing that somewhere....)
I don't drink coffee to wake up. I wake up to drink coffee.

Ithoriel

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GrumpyOldMan

Hello

Have our current  'interesting times' had any appreciable 'spanner' effect on your timetable? I'm thinking specifically about TB line Mongols. You originally had them slotted in for Northern summer. I'm bored and looking through old posts (as if you can't tell) and on day 11 of 14 of personal lockdown  :(.

Cheers

GrumpyOldMan

Steve J

We are on day 5 of a projected 3 month lockdown :'( :'( :'(. Hopefully a food parcel will arrive this week which will help in minimising having to leave the house and risking 'social contact'.

Leon

Quote from: GrumpyOldMan on 29 March 2020, 05:46:09 AM
Have our current  'interesting times' had any appreciable 'spanner' effect on your timetable? I'm thinking specifically about TB line Mongols. You originally had them slotted in for Northern summer. I'm bored and looking through old posts (as if you can't tell) and on day 11 of 14 of personal lockdown  :(.

It's having an effect but I'm not sure how much just yet.  Currently it's the uncertainty that's causing the majority of the delays.  I'm working late night shifts in the unit but instead of the usual figure clean-up, blackwashing, photo editing, etc. I'm spending my time at a casting machine trying to get as many orders out as possible, just in case we get a full national lockdown.  If we thought that a lockdown wasn't likely then I could be back on new releases instead, but things are changing on a daily basis at the moment and we need to be ready to down tools and head home if needed.  To be honest I don't quite know what to do for the best right now.
www.pendraken.co.uk - Now home to over 7000 products, including 4500 items for 10mm wargaming, plus MDF bases, Battlescale buildings, I-94 decals, Litko Gaming Aids, Militia Miniatures, Raiden Miniatures 1/285th aircraft, Red Vectors MDF products, Vallejo paints and much, much more!

Orcs

29 March 2020, 11:47:35 PM #71 Last Edit: 29 March 2020, 11:50:52 PM by Orcs
Quote from: Leon on 29 March 2020, 11:26:16 PM
It's having an effect but I'm not sure how much just yet.  Currently it's the uncertainty that's causing the majority of the delays.  I'm working late night shifts in the unit but instead of the usual figure clean-up, blackwashing, photo editing, etc. I'm spending my time at a casting machine trying to get as many orders out as possible, just in case we get a full national lockdown.  If we thought that a lockdown wasn't likely then I could be back on new releases instead, but things are changing on a daily basis at the moment and we need to be ready to down tools and head home if needed.  To be honest I don't quite know what to do for the best right now.

I think you should do what you all feel comfortable with. If you can keep going until he governments support package for self employed comes online. that's all well and good.  If you are all happier and feel safer by staying at home now then that is what you should do.

They currently say that up to 2 people may meet for the purposes of work. Could you reduce the occupancy of the unit at any one time to 2 people and possibly work shifts?  If that means delays to our orders then I don't think anyone on the forum would actually worry about a delay.

We are all primarily more concerned that all of you involved in Pendraken (Owners, Casters, Designers, Minions ) and your families remain safe and healthy.  A secondary concern is that as a company you manage to survive.

With that in mind it might be worth looking into the Gift voucher/Coupon idea suggested on the forum recently.  Perhaps a simple home printed  numbered voucher with the value and an original signature  (perhaps in a strange coloured ink) of you or Dave would suffice. You could record the details of who bought it , the value etc to mitigate against fraud ( I sincerely hope no one here would even think of that).

We could then buy them now even if your production is stopped. To claim back later when things are back to normal.  This could perhaps help with cash flow and paying yourselves etc.

You could even do what they do on Kickstarters with a low value "support" donation.

The cynics are right nine times out of ten. -Mencken, H. L.

Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well. - Robert Louis Stevenson

Leon

Quote from: Orcs on 29 March 2020, 11:47:35 PM
They currently say that up to 2 people may meet for the purposes of work. Could you reduce the occupancy of the unit at any one time to 2 people and possibly work shifts?  If that means delays to our orders then I don't think anyone on the forum would actually worry about a delay.

We've already reduced down to 3-max in the unit, so we're OK on that front.  Today as an example, we had 1 x Caster / 1 x Laser / 1 x Packager from 8am-2pm, then the packager and laser person went home.  I came in at 3pm so it'll be me and the caster until 4pm when he leaves, and then I'll be on my own until midnight-ish.  That'll be the same or similar for the rest of the week.  We could potentially reduce down to 2-max if needed by putting one of the casters onto night shifts with me.

Quote from: Orcs on 29 March 2020, 11:47:35 PM
With that in mind it might be worth looking into the Gift voucher/Coupon idea suggested on the forum recently.  Perhaps a simple home printed  numbered voucher with the value and an original signature  (perhaps in a strange coloured ink) of you or Dave would suffice. You could record the details of who bought it , the value etc to mitigate against fraud ( I sincerely hope no one here would even think of that).

We could then buy them now even if your production is stopped. To claim back later when things are back to normal.  This could perhaps help with cash flow and paying yourselves etc.

I'm hoping to get something like this sorted out soon, mainly so that we can offer some kind of deal over what would have been the Salute weekend.

Quote from: Orcs on 29 March 2020, 11:47:35 PM
I think you should do what you all feel comfortable with. If you can keep going until he governments support package for self employed comes online. that's all well and good.  If you are all happier and feel safer by staying at home now then that is what you should do.

The government response so far has been excellent, more than I expected them to do.  The only trouble we've got there currently is this 'furloughed' label that they've put on things, which is a US legal term and doesn't have a legal definition in UK law.  Given the context it's being used in, we can assume that any businesses who have seen such a loss of sales/income that they were going to make people redundant could instead 'furlough' those staff members and the government will pick up 80% of their wages (upto £2500 per month).  We can also assume that any businesses forced to close by the government will also have their staff 'furloughed' and again, the government will cover those wages. 

However, currently the government have not forced manufacturing businesses to close, and they have actively encouraged online retailers to remain open during this period.  So we've not been officially closed by anyone.  If we choose to shut our doors voluntarily for the safety of our staff and their families, are the government still going to give us the same level of support or will they argue that we could have continued trading and therefore can't claim the employee support?

I've already told the staff that they'll be getting paid regardless of what happens, as our wages are the main source of income for 5 different households and I don't want them struggling through this.  I can afford to pay 1 month's worth of wages easily, and then a 2nd month with some juggling of the bills, but anything beyond that and we'd be in trouble. 

We've heard rumours of a full national shutdown on everything (and were expecting it on Friday night) but so far it hasn't happened.  So do we voluntarily closedown and hope that Boris orders a full shutdown in the next week or two, so that we're covered by the support?  Or is that leaving us potentially hanging in no-mans land and paying the staff for upto 12 weeks without any government support?

Apologies for the long reply there!  There's a lot of questions at the moment and we're keeping a close eye on things as they progress.  We've fully safeguarded the staff in the unit here and they're all happy to continue working currently.  We'll just have to keep going as best we can and see what happens I suppose.
www.pendraken.co.uk - Now home to over 7000 products, including 4500 items for 10mm wargaming, plus MDF bases, Battlescale buildings, I-94 decals, Litko Gaming Aids, Militia Miniatures, Raiden Miniatures 1/285th aircraft, Red Vectors MDF products, Vallejo paints and much, much more!

Orcs

Quote from: Leon on 30 March 2020, 03:44:53 PM

If we choose to shut our doors voluntarily for the safety of our staff and their families, are the government still going to give us the same level of support or will they argue that we could have continued trading and therefore can't claim the employee support?


No need to apologise for the long reply.

Since I wrote my missive I hvbe seen a video on the BBC website about a lady who was laid off literally hours before the government announced they would pay wages, and this means she is not eligible.

So I would make sure you stay open (on paper at least)  until you are told to shutdown
The cynics are right nine times out of ten. -Mencken, H. L.

Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well. - Robert Louis Stevenson

fred.

Quote from: Leon on 29 March 2020, 11:26:16 PM
It's having an effect but I'm not sure how much just yet.  Currently it's the uncertainty that's causing the majority of the delays.  I'm working late night shifts in the unit but instead of the usual figure clean-up, blackwashing, photo editing, etc. I'm spending my time at a casting machine trying to get as many orders out as possible, just in case we get a full national lockdown.  If we thought that a lockdown wasn't likely then I could be back on new releases instead, but things are changing on a daily basis at the moment and we need to be ready to down tools and head home if needed.  To be honest I don't quite know what to do for the best right now.

Sounds like you are thinking all this through, and really thinking about your staff - which is great to hear (but hardly unexpected given your excellent track record on this.

I'd suggest moving as much of the figure prep, photo stuff home as you can - then you have an option to continue with that if we do go to more of a lockdown.

Though tonight's news seem to indicate that the current level is working (though given the incubation period, I'm not sure)
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